Making intellectual property work for business - World Intellectual ...

Setting up IP services | Advocating policy
Required
resources and
their potential
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52 Making intellectual property work for business
correspondence. IT tools may be useful to facilitate meetings and collective drafting.
Consensus-building is not necessarily an easy task as members’ interests may diverge
on certain IP issues. Any necessary internal review processes and approvals should be
respected to ensure that the position has the necessary official backing of the organization’s
membership before it is made public, especially if the issue is a controversial one.
The policy position has then to be translated into material that can be used for
advocacy purposes. This can take the form of position papers, reports, press releases,
web stories, briefings, presentations, brochures etc. depending on who is being
targeted. It is worth noting that positions are often more persuasive for policy makers
when backed by facts and figures. To the extent that time and resources allow, it may
be helpful to have research done to obtain evidence to back up positions. If the business
membership organization conducts policy advocacy in other areas, any IP policy
positions should be coordinated with its positions in other areas.
Advocacy of policy position
The business membership organization’s position can be advocated in different
ways: through sending documents to relevant policy makers; by organizing meetings
between policy makers and staff and/or members; by organizing conferences and
debates on the topic; by making presentations and interventions at conferences; by
communicating with the press and addressing public opinion through social media, etc.
It can often be helpful to collaborate with other like-minded organizations to coordinate
and reinforce shared messages with different constituencies.
Building a relationship of trust with policy makers working in the IP field – both at
a personal and at an institutional level – is essential to the success of any long-term IP
advocacy service. A business membership organization has to build up its credibility
with policy makers – as well as with it members – with sound, well-founded positions
which accurately reflect its members interests. A regular dialogue with key policy
makers is important to maintain open channels of communication, and personal and
institutional relationships.
Members can be valuable advocates for an organization’s policy positions and can
multiply the communication possibilities. It is important, however, that members acting
as spokespeople for business membership organization positions should accurately
represent positions of the organization as a whole, and not the interests of their own
organizations or sectors, and that they have the mandate and technical, political, and
advocacy expertise to represent the organization appropriately.
Resources needed to develop an advocacy function which results in sound consensus
positions which are effectively communicated include:
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having a critical mass of interested members with relevant expertise in the topic;
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staff member(s) to coordinate and drive the process who are able to understand
the substance and follow the processes, as well as maintain relationships with key
policy players and members; and
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communication specialists to support the communication of policy positions to the
media and other channels.
Funds may be required to commission research to gather evidence to support a
position, or to hire a consultant to prepare papers if this cannot be done by staff or
members. When undertaking an advocacy campaign on an issue, resources may be
necessary for preparing materials, for meetings with policy makers, or for organizing
conferences on the topic. To increase outreach with limited resources, it may be helpful
to work with and share communication efforts with other organizations.