GENEVA - An Advanced Course on Intellectual Property for Government Officials opened on March 16, 2015, aiming to enhance the capacity of governments in developing countries and in countries with economies in transition to develop national expertise in Intellectual Property matters.

According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), this seventh in an annual series jointly convened by the World Intellectual Property Organization and the WTO will run over the next two weeks, with 25 officials from developing countries.

The initiative for the course lies in the growing demand within developing countries for enhanced awareness of international intellectual property issues, and to consolidate the policy skills required to analyze and engage with these developments.

This advanced course is at the highest level of capacity building in the WTO’s set of programs, as part of the organization’s progressive learning strategy. It brings together officials who already have a strong background in intellectual property and related policy areas and who seek to consolidate and extend their knowledge and skills. The course, which also conforms with the mandate of the WIPO Academy, provides education and training in intellectual property.

The course aims to update government officials on the activities and instruments of WIPO and the WTO and on other multilateral developments, and to enable them to exchange information and ideas among them and with the two Secretariats.

It forms part of an overall strategy to build sufficient capacity within the governments of developing countries and countries with economies in transition, to assess and analyze their policy options and to strengthen national expertise in relation to intellectual property. It is designed to equip the participants with the necessary tools to help formulate policies that will facilitate the development process in their respective countries.

 

Participants and topics

The program builds the skills and awareness to enable participants to work together with other stakeholders in their constituencies to adapt, develop and harness IP systems to promote national economic and development goals.

Twenty five participants were selected from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, and their participation was financed by WIPO and WTO. Three additional officials from developed countries were also selected.

Together, they are from: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, European Union, Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Mauritius, Moldova, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Singapore, South Africa, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and Ukraine.

The course combines expert presentations, discussion sessions, panel deliberations, and practical exercises. The subject matter covers:

• the law, policy and development dimensions of intellectual property (IP)

• the different international treaties and conventions governing intellectual property, and the development of bilateral and regional standards

• IP and its relation to economic development, international trade, public (particularly with respect to access to medicines),climate change, biodiversity, and competition policy

• the current international landscapes in copyrights, trademarks, industrial, geographical indications and patents

• the WTO Dispute Settlement System and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

• intellectual property enforcement

• traditional knowledge and folklore

 

Learning from diverse experts

A key feature of the program is the diversity of stakeholder perspectives made available to participants. They will hear from experts from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), the World Health Organization (WHO), Médecins sans Frontières, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA), Licensing Executive Society International (LESI), the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Participants will also undertake a study tour to the Alimentarium, the Nestlé Food museum in Vevey in Western Switzerland, where intellectual property experts will share that company’s experience in the field, in particular on patents and trademarks.

Interactivity is a major element of this course. Several practical exercises are organized throughout the two weeks and participants are encouraged to interact actively with the two Secretariats, as well as among themselves, both on the substance of the course and to share national experiences. At the end of the course, they will be strongly encouraged to continue their partnership with WIPO and WTO.

This course exemplifies efforts to intensify cooperation and coherence between international organizations. The WTO’s collaboration with WIPO, and other international organizations such as WHO and UNCTAD, has made it possible to put together courses such as this one, and enriched their content and the breadth of policy expertise provided.

This collaboration has also enabled these organizations to work together and identify policy space needed to promote the balance between innovation and access to medical technologies in the context of the 2001 Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health as exemplified by the trilateral study which is available here.