"In an October 15 speech, the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Jonathan Dudas, vowed that the U.S. government will 'fight' proposals that aim to 'fundamentally change the WIPO charter and philosophy' away from its current focus on the promotion of intellectual property.
In his keynote remarks at the Annual Meeting of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA—a 15,000-member U.S. bar association comprised primarily of intellectual property lawyers) Dudas stated emphatically that 'our current system and international norms are properly balanced'. In a not-so-oblique reference to recent discussions at WIPO of a 'Development Agenda,' Dudas derided efforts to encourage WIPO to take a more balanced approach to intellectual property as part of a 'strategy to water down intellectual property protection' that is 'even worse' than efforts to increase PCT application fees.
The USPTO’s comments come hot on the heels of a landmark decision by WIPO’s 2004 General Assembly to adopt a Development Agenda. Negotiations on which provisions to include in the decision were heated. While the General Assembly’s decision attracted broad support, it side-stepped addressing many aspects of the original Development Agenda proposal submitted by Brazil and Argentina and co-sponsored by fourteen other developing countries [...].
[...]
Introducing the proposal at the Assembly, the delegation of Brazil described the Development Agenda objectives as of 'global interest', noting that they should neither pitch developing against developed countries nor 'polarise' debate. Concurring that development is a shared concern for the international community, no delegation disputed the underlying thrust of the proposal—that intellectual property ought to be used in ways that advance development. The proposal did, however, stimulate debate on a range of conceptual issues and political differences that, surprisingly, had not previously been tabled by WIPO Members for specific discussion. [...]"
Intellectual Property Watch:
here and