IP And Branding – Tools For Development, WIPO Says

Intellectual property and product branding can be valuable tools for development, and communities and countries are taking note, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization, which held a presentation on the issue yesterday.

Part of the World Intellectual Property Organization Development Agenda is a project on “IP and Product Branding for Business Development in Developing Countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs).”

A side event on the issue was held yesterday during the 25th session of the Intergovernmental Committee Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC), which is taking place from 15-24 July.

The event highlighted different countries’ experiences in utilising IP tools such as trademarks, collective marks, and geographical indications, to promote business growth and development in local communities.

Francesca Toso, a senior counsellor at WIPO, shared the cases of Panama, Thailand and Uganda, the three pilot countries for this project. These countries were selected based on a “potential for action,” because WIPO wanted to work with communities that were “already well-organised” to move from an individual to a collective model of production and branding.

In terms of selecting pilot products, the project coordinators aimed to find the “most emblematic products” possessing a certain level of uniqueness and quality. Toso said that the existence of a legal framework for the protection of origin-linked products was also an important criterion for selection, but that these frameworks differed from country to country.

One of the main challenges was to identify which type of IP could be used in a given case of country and product, since there were instances where legislation for a specific type of IP did not exist.

Another, more abstract, challenge, and one pertinent to the concurrent discussions at the IGC, is something that IP is intended to promote – innovation. More specifically, there is a question of how or if the IP system can reconcile tensions between the modernisation of these products and the preservation of their “traditional” nature.

This WIPO project focusses primarily on the first challenge: utilising IP to create a brand for certain traditional or origin-linked products. The goal is to add value to these products and to ensure that the appropriate communities receive recognition and the economic benefits of providing such goods.

Despite any perceived conflicts between modernisation and maintaining tradition, communities have been eager to engage and learn more about how to brand their special or unique goods, Toso said during her presentation. Toso referenced a video that summarises WIPO’s efforts as well as country perspectives on the issue of branding and development.

Brittany Ngo is currently completing her Master’s in Health Policy and Global Health at the Yale School of Public Health and previously obtained a Bachelor’s of Arts in Economics from Georgetown University. Through her studies she has developed an interest in health-related intellectual property issues. She is a summer intern at Intellectual Property Watch.