TITLE: NGOs, Intellectual
Property Rights and Multilateral Institutions AUTHOR:
Duncan Matthews PUBLICATION: Report of the IP-NGOs project
DATE: 22 December 2006 URL:
http://www.ipngos.org/Report/IP-NGOs%20final%20report%20Dec
ember%202006.pdf
NGOS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND MULTILATERAL
INSTITUTIONS
Report of the IP-NGOs project
December 2006
A new report, setting out the
findings from an academic research project on
non-governmental organisations, intellectual property
rights and multilateral institutions (the IP-NGOs
project), is now available and can be downloaded from the
IP-NGOs project website:
http://www.ipngos.org/Report/IP-NGOs%20final%20report%20Dec
ember%202006.pdf
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report sets out the key findings of an independent academic research project investigating the significance of non-governmental organisations for intellectual property rights and multilateral institutions (the IP-NGOs project). Based on over sixty face-to-face interviews with representatives of key NGOs, developing country delegations and the secretariats of multilateral institutions, the IP-NGOs project has analysed patterns in recent activity by NGOs in relation to intellectual property issues in the World Trade Organisation (WTO); the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO); the World Health Organisation (WHO); the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties (CBD-COP); and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
Section 1 of the report explains how the project originated as a response to the UK Commission on Intellectual Property Rights. Section 2 then looks at how and why international NGOs play an important role in supporting the work of delegates to multilateral institutions. It also suggests further activities that international NGOs could undertake in the future. Section 3 describes how NGOs, social movements, indigenous groups and local communities in developing countries have played a key role in raising awareness of the implications of intellectual property policy for development policy. It identifies the limits to what groups in the South have been able to achieve and suggests how they could make more effective inputs in the future. Section 4 looks at relations between public action NGOs and industry, highlighting barriers to dialogue and instances where good relations have been established. Section 5 assesses current arrangements for NGO engagement with multilateral institutions and suggests how these arrangements could be enhanced in the future. Section 6 examines how NGOs are planning responses to new and emerging issues. It also explains the limits to what NGOs can hope to achieve. Section 7 concludes the report by setting out six recommendations for international NGOs, for multilateral institutions and for the donors of funds that support the work of NGOs.
The selection of the case studies for the IP-NGOs project was informed by the UK Commission on Intellectual Property Rights report, which suggested that the role of NGOs had been particularly notable in relation to (i) public health and access to medicines and (ii) agriculture, genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Brief summaries of findings relating to the two case studies are contained in the appendices of this report. Further outputs of the project, in terms of journal articles and a book, will report findings from the case studies in greater detail.
For more information:
Duncan Matthews
Senior Lecturer
Queen Mary
Intellectual Property Research Institute
Email:
d.n.matthews(at)qmul.ac.uk
Web: http://www.ipngos.org
and
http://www.qmipri.org