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June 24, 2005
Thinking about the WIPO
By Waldemar Ingdahl
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has come under pressure from developing countries to endorse a "Development Agenda" that could inflict significant costs on advanced economies and slow down the less developed economies by weakening the protection of intellectual property rights.
The "Development Agenda" is an expansive international movement to weaken the premise of intellectual property rights. The agenda is being pushed by countries such as Brazil and India and various NGOs.
A looser Intellectual Property (IP) regime risks locking developing nations into dependency of IP from the rich world, while making it hard to develop IP on their own. The problem is similar to exporting cheap subsidized food to the third world: it feeds people, but also ensures that local farmers never will be able to compete. Many poorer nations have societies where looser IP would benefit corrupt elites, able to set up profitable industries for themselves, while slowing the economic growth necessary for the less privileged citizens.
Why does Brazil pursue a policy that obviously hurts its own emerging creative industries? It has adapted to behave as a less developed nation, instead of looking forward to its near future as a content producer. India still thinks with the infant industry argument in mind, but India's excellent film and software industry are forcing reconsiderations.
The alternative to reducing the protection of IP is to strengthen the protection of the creative commons, the fields of knowledge and culture that no longer belong to individual property holders. This would benefit people and businesses in both rich and poor countries.
Between the 20th and 22nd of June, leaders will meet at WIPO in Geneva to debate the "Development Agenda". During this time, leaders should recall recent success stories like Jordan, Singapore and South Korea and that property rights are linked to growth and prosperity, because developing nations will not stay poor forever.
Posted by Waldemar at June 24, 2005 09:31 AM