The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is holding a somewhat uncharacteristic two-day meeting to increase awareness of intellectual property rights throughout the region.
The UNECE meeting of IP “specialists” is taking place on 7-8 July at the UN in Geneva. According to a UNECE newsletter [pdf], the meeting includes a wide range of stakeholders, including industry, but no one representing the public interest.
“An effective and balanced intellectual property (IP) regime increases national wealth and benefits consumers by stimulating research and investment into new technologies and innovative products, and by enabling the transfer of technology, including between countries at different stages of economic development,” the newsletter said.
The problem in the UNECE region, it said, is that smaller companies are not aware of the benefits of IP, university researchers do not realise that research results need IP protection to be commercialised, and “consumers do not fully understand how, by buying counterfeit products, they are undermining innovative businesses.”
The newsletter stretches a bit to offer a rationale for the UN body to hold such an event: “This event contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, in particular Goal 8
“Develop a global partnership for development”, which, inter alia, calls for the United Nations to work in cooperation with the private sector to make available the benefits of new technologies.”
Dear Madam or Sir,
To be precise, the meeting did not include any self-appointed advocates of the public interest. It did however include representatives of governments, which I am sure you agree are elected to serve the public interest.
Best regards
Ralph Heinrich
(organizer of the meeting in question)
First of all, thank you for covering the UNECE meeting. I think many people are not aware of the UNECE’s work in the area of IP. However, I do not understand why you describe the meeting as “uncharacteristic”. What is the reference here? Are you comparing it to WIPO ACE meetings or to WCO RHCG meetings? The UNECE Team of Specialists on IP exists since 2006 and before that they had the Advisory Group on IPRs. In what way was this year’s meeting uncharacteristic? Was there any new development? If so, I would like to read such news.
Thanks Christopher, “uncharacteristic” means it was an uncommon activity for a group more often involved in issues such as transportation or energy. It was not to say they have never been involved in it before. There may well have been news in the way the issue was handled there.