The Riyadh Design Law Treaty: Harmonizing Global Design Procedures with Mixed Implications
By Nirmalya Syam
The Riyadh Design Law Treaty (DLT), adopted on November 22, 2024, aims to harmonize and simplify the global registration procedures for industrial designs. By standardizing procedural requirements across jurisdictions, the treaty seeks to create a more predictable and accessible system for designers, particularly benefiting small-scale designers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, the DLT can have implications for developing countries, as many lack significant design-intensive industries. Key provisions in the DLT include a 12-month grace period, deferred publication, divisional applications, and the option to require disclosures regarding traditional knowledge and cultural expressions used in a design. While the treaty enhances global design protection, concerns persist regarding its impact on local designers, market competition, and procedural fairness. The immediate advantages of the DLT for developing countries are limited, highlighting the need for continued technical assistance and capacity-building efforts.
Statement in Support of Discussions on Counterfeiting in the Biotechnology Sector and the Prevention of Biopiracy WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE)
Today at the 17th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE), the South Centre delivered its statement, emphasizing the need to prevent biopiracy while addressing counterfeiting in the biotechnology sector. A balanced IP enforcement approach is key to protecting biodiversity & traditional knowledge.
The WIPO Development Agenda: Progress and Challenges in 2025
By Nirmalya Syam
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Development Agenda (DA), adopted in 2007, seeks to align intellectual property (IP) policies with the development priorities of member States. Enduring challenges persist despite some progress including the adoption of treaties to facilitate access to copyright protected works for visually impaired and print disabled persons, and the recent treaty on IP, genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, and the adoption of several projects for implementing different DA recommendations. DA projects, however, have had limited impact on mainstreaming a development orientation in WIPO, there is limited promotion of use of IP flexibilities for development, and WIPO’s technical assistance continues to lack a development orientation. There is also a sustained absence of consideration and reporting of development related issues across WIPO bodies. Divergent interpretations of “development”, weak coordination and monitoring systems, and governance inequities have hindered the DA’s transformative potential. This brief examines these issues and advances recommendations to address the challenges to establish an effective DA.
Application of the Bolar Exception: Different Approaches in the EU
By Dmytro Doubinsky
This Research Paper addresses the growing problem of access to essential medicines, focusing on the role of intellectual property rights, particularly patent rights, in restricting access by enabling pharmaceutical market monopolies that keep drug prices high. The paper explores the Bolar exception, a legal mechanism designed to allow generic drug manufacturers to seek regulatory approval before a patent expires, thus preventing the de facto extension of patent monopolies. The study examines the transformation of the Bolar exception from a specific legal case into a significant tool of intellectual property, commercial, and pharmaceutical law. The paper analyzes key international legal frameworks and European directives related to the Bolar exception and highlights divergent interpretations of the Exception in German and Polish case law. Through this comparative analysis, the paper argues for the broader implementation of Bolar exceptions to improve access to affordable medicines and reduce healthcare costs.
International Regulation of Industrial Designs: The TRIPS Agreement in the Light of European Union Law
By Adèle Sicot
This paper analyzes the provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) on industrial designs, and the manner in which the narrow aspects dealt with by the Agreement have been addressed by European Union (EU) legislation. The paper highlights the absence of a definition of protectable subject matter, and the considerable flexibility left to the member countries of the World Trade Organization to determine the framework of protection, notably on the basis of copyright. The paper also notes certain areas in which European legislation is more elaborate, and others which could be considered incompatible with the TRIPS Agreement.
Las nuevas pandemias son inevitables. ¿Cómo podemos estar mejor preparados para ellas y, sobre todo, cómo podemos evitar los errores e injusticias cometidos durante la pandemia de COVID19? Actualmente se están llevando a cabo negociaciones para formular un tratado internacional vinculante sobre prevención y preparación que garantice respuestas más justas a futuras pandemias. Este libro pretende ser una contribución crítica a estos debates en curso.
¿Cómo garantizar un acceso equitativo a los medicamentos y diagnósticos cuando la mayoría de ellos se producen en un número reducido de países? ¿Cómo explicar que la financiación actual de la cooperación sanitaria esté en manos de un pequeño grupo de países y fundaciones del Norte? ¿Cómo reforzar el papel de la Organización Mundial de la Salud, que actualmente desempeña un papel secundario en la coordinación de las políticas de salud pública? ¿Por qué se ha sustituido el concepto de «medicamentos esenciales», gran avance de la política de salud pública, por el de «contramedidas médicas», término más acorde con el afán de lucro del sector privado?
Autor: Germán Velásquez, Asesor especial sobre políticas y salud, South Centre de Ginebra
South Centre Statement to the 49th WIPO IGC Session
2 December 2024
We support the work by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) to contribute to a more inclusive and just international intellectual property system and sustainable development.
African researchers continue to face information-access barriers owing to copyright exclusivity preserved by the global copyright system that is designed and skewed towards protecting rights holders’ interests. A specific explicit human right to research is an important mechanism that can ensure an equitable balance between the private commercial interest of copyright owners and the public interest in promoting access to information for research in Africa. This article demonstrates how the right to research can be constructed from the normative content and scope of the rights to science and culture, education, property and freedom of expression provided for in international, regional and national human rights regimes in Africa.
Health, Intellectual Property and Biodiversity Programme, November 2024
The following matrix provides a factual overview and analysis of the standing and non-standing agenda items of the regular session of the WTO TRIPS Council of 6-7 November. The matrix also discusses the TRIPS Implementation issues as part of the WTO Doha Development Round of negotiations.
Régulation internationale des dessins et modèles industriels : l’Accord sur les ADPIC à l’aune du droit de l’Union européenne
Par Adèle Sicot
Ce document analyse les dispositions de l’Accord sur les aspects des droits de propriété intellectuelle qui touchent au commerce (l’Accord sur les ADPIC) sur les dessins et modèles et la manière dont les aspects limités traités par l’Accord ont été abordés par la législation de l’Union Européenne (l’UE). Il note l’absence d’une définition de la matière susceptible de protection et une considérable flexibilité laissée aux pays membres de l’Organisation Mondiale du Commerce pour déterminer le cadre de protection, notamment sur la base du droit d’auteur. Le document note aussi certains aspects dans lesquels la législation européenne est plus élaborée et d’autres dans lesquels on pourrait observer une incompatibilité avec l’Accord sur les ADPIC.
Towards a Balanced WIPO Design Law Treaty (DLT) for Developing Countries
By Nirmalya Syam
The WIPO Design Law Treaty (DLT) aims to harmonize and simplify global industrial design registration procedures, encourage digital applications and reduce costs. While the reforms required by the DLT could boost efficiency, they will mainly benefit enterprises from developed countries with resources to secure global design rights. This policy brief highlights the key concerns for developing countries, particularly the treaty’s potential impacts on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and indigenous communities. It advocates for critical adjustments in the DLT negotiation texts to allow for policy space in the DLT – binding technical assistance, flexible grace periods, enabling disclosure of the origin and source of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions used in designs that are sought to be registered, and optional divisional and electronic filing provisions.
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