SCP/11/6 Prov. (in English) - WIPO

|WIPO |[pic] |E |
| | |SCP/11/6 Prov. |
| | |ORIGINAL: English |
| | |DATE: June 23, 2005 |
|WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION |
|GENEVA |


standing committee on the law of patents

ELEVENTH SESSION
Geneva, June 1 and 2, 2005

DRAFT REPORT

PREPARED BY THE SECRETARIAT





INTRODUCTION


1. The Standing Committee on the Law of Patents ("the Committee" or "the
SCP") held its eleventh session in Geneva on June 1 and 2, 2005.

2. The following States members of WIPO and/or the Paris Union were
represented at the meeting: Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda,
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Brazil,
Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte
d'Ivoire, Croatia, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of),
Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Libyan Arab
Jamahiriya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco,
Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova,
Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro,
Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, The
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United
Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam and Zambia
(85).

3. Representatives of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the African
Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), the African Regional
Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), the Eurasian Patent Office
(EAPO), the European Commission (EC), the European Patent Office (EPO) and
the South Centre (SC) took part in the meeting in an observer capacity (7).

4. Representatives of the following non-governmental organizations took
part in the meeting in an observer capacity: Asian Patent Attorneys
Association (APAA), Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), Brazilian
Association of Intellectual Property Agents (ABAPI), Center for
International Environmental Law (CIEL), Centre for International Industrial
Property Studies (CEIPI), Civil Society Coalition (CSC), Exchange and
Cooperation Centre for Latin America (ECCLA), Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII), Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech), European Generics
Medicine Association (EGA), Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI), Genetic
Resources Action International (GRAIN), German Association for Industrial
Property and Copyright Law (GRUR), Institute of Professional
Representatives before the European Patent Office (EPI), International
Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (AIPPI),
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), International Federation of
Industrial Property Attorneys (FICPI), International Federation of
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IFPMA), Japan Intellectual
Property Association (JIPA), Japan Patent Attorneys Association (JPAA), Max-
Planck-Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law (MPI),
Medicins sans fontières (MSF) and Union of European Practitioners in
Industrial Property (UNION) (23).

5. The list of participants is contained in the Annex to this report.

6. The following documents prepared by the International Bureau had been
submitted to the SCP prior to the session: "Revised Draft Agenda"
(SCP/11/1 Rev.), "Accreditation of Non-Governmental Organizations"
(SCP/11/2), "Addendum to Accreditation of Non-Governmental Organizations
(SCP/11/2 Add.), "Future Work Program for the Standing Committee on the Law
of Patents" (SCP/11/3) and "Statement Received from Brazil" (SCP/11/4).

7. The Secretariat noted the interventions made and recorded them on
tape. This report summarizes the discussions reflecting all the
observations made.


GENERAL DISCUSSION


Agenda Item 1: Opening of the Session


The eleventh session of the SCP was opened, on behalf of the Director
General, by Mr. Francis Gurry, Deputy Director General, who welcomed the
participants. Mr. Philippe Baechtold (WIPO) acted as Secretary.



Agenda Item 2: Election of a Chair and Two Vice-Chairs


The Standing Committee unanimously elected Mr. Boris Simonov (Russian
Federation) as Chair and Mr. Yin Xintian (China) and Mr. Usman Sarki
(Nigeria) as Vice-Chairs.



Agenda Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda


The Delegation of Argentina, speaking on behalf of the "Friends of
Development", expressed its readiness to contribute to a positive outcome
of the meeting, its expectation that the Committee would work on the basis
of the principle of consensus, as it was the tradition in WIPO, as well as
its hope that all delegations would be properly heard and their views be
fully reflected in the final outcome. The Delegation had no doubt that the
rules of procedure would be abided by at all times. It said that, as had
been done for the previous meetings of the SCP, a final report should be
prepared for this eleventh session of the SCP for future adoption. For
that purpose, in its view, it was important that the Summary by the Chair
under item 7 of the agenda, be agreed by all.

The Chair confirmed that the Committee would strictly observe the
rules of procedure and that discussions would be completely clear and
understandable. In the absence of other reactions to the intervention of
the Delegation of Argentina, he considered that there had been a unanimous
decision that the Summary by the Chair should be discussed and agreed by
consensus.

The revised draft agenda was adopted as proposed in document
SCP/11/1 Rev.



Agenda Item 4: Accreditation of Intergovernmental and/or Non-Governmental
Organizations


The SCP approved the accreditation of the Centre for the
Management of Intellectual Property in Health Research and Development
(MIHR), the Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech), Consumers
International (CI), the Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI), the Generic
Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) and the Mexican National Association
of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (ANAFAM) as ad hoc observers (documents
SCP/11/2 and 2 Add.).


Agenda Item 5: Adoption of the Draft Report of the Tenth Session

The Delegation of China proposed corrections of the fourth and fifth
sentences in paragraph 24 of the draft report of the tenth session
(document SCP/10/11 Prov.2) as follows: "In this regard, the Delegation
noted that a recent report by the Federal Trade Commission of the United
States of America published in October 2003 did not agree with the opinion
that the patent applicants, rather than the general public, should be
regarded as the customers of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
and pointed out that this opinion was too narrow and inadequate. In this
connection, it was necessary to take account of the objective under
Article 7 of ...."

The International Bureau noted that it had received a request from the
Representative of the EPO with respect to a correction in paragraph 125
regarding his intervention.

The Committee adopted the draft report of its tenth session
(document SCP/10/11 Prov.2) as proposed, subject to the corrections
referred to in paragraphs 14 and 15, above.


Agenda Item 6: Work program for the Standing Committee on the Law of
Patents

The Secretariat introduced document SCP/11/3. It recalled that the
General Assembly had, at its last meeting in September-October 2004, had
difficulty in reaching a decision as to the future work program of the SCP
and in fact had not been able to do so. The Secretariat further noted that
the General Assembly had also decided that the dates of the next session of
the SCP should be determined by the Director General following informal
consultations that he might undertake. The Director General had duly
convened informal consultations which had been held in Casablanca in the
Kingdom of Morocco in February 2005. Those consultations had led to a
series of recommendations by those present, which were listed in the Annex
to the document, to the Director General as to how the work program of the
Committee might be handled in the future. The Director General was now
transmitting those recommendations to the Standing Committee for its
consideration, as stated in document SCP/11/3. The recommendations and the
various delegations who had participated in the informal consultations in
Casablanca, as well as the position of one of those delegations, in
particular, in relation to the recommendations, had all been recorded in
the Annex.

The Delegation of Argentina, also speaking on behalf of the
Delegations of Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
Egypt, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Kenya, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa,
United Republic of Tanzania and Venezuela, introduced the contents of
document SCP/11/4 and expressed the importance it attached to the work of
the SCP and its concern with the direction that discussions had been taking
lately, particularly in the context of the negotiations on the draft
Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT). It noted that patent law was a very
sensitive area of intellectual property law which had significant cross-
cutting implications for many different areas of public policy. New norms
seeking to establish more st