Interactive Session of WIPO on the Development issues in International Intellectual Property Agenda in New Delhi

Welcome address by Dr. Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI

Friends

It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to this Interactive Session with Mr. Geoffrey YU, on Development Issues in international IP Agenda. I also take this opportunity to welcome Mr. Pushpendra Rai, Deputy Director, WIPO Worldwide Academy and Mr Shahid Ali Khan, former Deputy Director General WIPO. I must thank WIPO for all the support that they have provided to FIICI, IIPD in the last 10 years, particularly programmes leading to India's accession to PCT and its awareness building programmes thereafter. Let me inform you Sir that PCT is growing in India and it has tremendous potential to grow more but we need to continue to receive your support.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me introduce to you our esteemed Colleagues from WIPO

Mr. Yu has been with WIPO since November 1981. He has worked in different areas and capacities in WIPO since that date. Prior to his current appointment, he was Assistant Director General in charge of the Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights and Related Rights Sectors. Before that he had been in the Diplomatic Service of Singapore and had served in Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York. You would be delighted to know that he is an Alumni of Oxford University and University of Singapore.

Mr. Pushpendra Rai, before joining the WIPO in 1999, has worked for about 22 years in various capacities at the policy formulation and implementation levels with the Central and State Governments in India, in various fields including economic development, international trade and cooperation and intellectual property rights. He represented India in various bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations and has published papers on various aspects of intellectual property rights and the TRIPS Agreement. Mr. Rai obtained his postgraduate degree in Economics from India and another postgraduate degree from Harvard University, USA.

Mr. Shahid Ali Khan is one of the highest ranking Indian in the International Civil Services and is a member of the governing body of institute of Intellectual Property rights. We are fortunate to have him today with us because he travels a lot even now after his retirement from WIPO several years ago as Deputy Director General. You would be delighted to know that he was Under Secretary General in United Nations many many years ago.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

WIPO is the main multilateral provider of technical assistance in the field of intellectual property. By virtue of the 1995 agreement with the WTO, it plays an important role in providing developing countries with technical assistance to implement the TRIPS agreement.

As you are all aware, the international environment with respect to intellectual property has changed considerably with the conclusion of the TRIPs Agreement in the Uruguay Round. The harmonization of IPR regime under TRIPs is going to affect the process of development of poorer countries in a significant manner. With the help of TRIPs Agreement, we should be able to curb the menace of imitative duplication of author's work and reverse engineering of patents.

As you know, India is a signatory to the agreement establishing the World Trade Organization, we need to strengthen our IPR laws and work towards its enforcement.

At present our main focus is to develop the following key sectors of our economy:

1. Health, food, agriculture and education
2. Biotechnology and communication technologies.
3. Technology transfer and foreign direct investment
4. Administrative and institutional challenges for developing countries, especially relating to enforcement of TRIPS and setting up the administrative structures.
5. Human rights
6. Exceptions to patentability

We need to work towards the development of these key areas in consonance with WIPO
A WIPO Development Agenda would need to take into account any possible negative impact on the users of IP, on consumers at large, or on public policy in general, and not just the promotion of the interest of Intellectual Property owners.

We are confident that this session would explore all the possibilities to identify the key development issues on international platform of intellectual property Agenda.