the spirit of invention copyright in court world ip day round-up - WIPO

The Intellectual Property-Conscious
Nation: Mapping the Path from
Developing to Developed
By Kamil Idris and Hisamitsu Arai
This contribution to the international debate on global development challenges, written
by WIPO Director General Kamil Idris and former Commissioner of the Japanese
Patent Office Hisamitsu Arai, was published by WIPO in May.
About the authors
Kamil Idris, Director General of WIPO,
was a professor of law and a diplomat
in the Sudanese foreign service before
joining the Organization. He studied
law, political science and international
affairs in Egypt, Sudan, the USA and
Switzerland.
Hisamitsu Arai is Secretary-General of
the Intellectual Property Headquarters at
the Cabinet Secretariat of the Japanese
government. A visiting Professor of Tokyo
University of Science, he served formerly
as Commissioner of the Japan Patent
Office, and as Vice-Minister at the Ministry
of International Trade and Industry.
Taking as their starting point the UN Millennium Development Goals, the authors set
out their vision of how the judicious use of the intellectual property (IP) system can
best contribute to the achievement of those goals. Their concern is to address “one
of the weakest links” in the economic development strategies of many developing
countries, namely a failure to integrate policies designed to promote IP and innovation
into other key development policies, such as those governing health, education,
trade, environment and science and technology.
Aimed at policy-makers as well as a broad, non-expert audience, the book bases its
appeal on the wealth of examples used to illustrate its message rather than on detailed
economic analysis. IP success stories – and failures – drawn from developed
and developing countries the world over offer the reader inspiration and instruction.
The strong personal and professional commitment of both authors to the promotion
of IP does not blind them to the problems and gray areas. IP is not, they stress, a
panacea. It can make a powerful contribution to meeting the world’s development
needs, but the market forces driving IP-based innovation are not alone sufficient to
solve such critical problems as producing drugs for neglected diseases. Nor will commercially-based
licensing, unchecked, ensure that vital new technologies reach those
who need them. If IP is to realize its full potential for helping meet development
goals, it must, they argue, be applied within a framework of global and corporate social
responsibility. They call for flexibility and common sense, and for humanitarian
policies to be applied to patent management.
From start to finish, the book drives home the central message that innovation is the
most important driver of economic development in the 21 st century; that the creation
of an innovation culture is the sine qua non; and that IP is the essential mechanism
which rewards, protects and converts innovation into economic assets. This message
is expanded and illustrated through chapters covering major development themes:
food security, poverty reduction, public health, education, environment, cultural heritage.
The chapters are written so as to be more or less self-standing, allowing the
reader to dip in and out without losing the thread.
The authors conclude by offering a five-step action plan for government leaders
seeking to speed their nations along the path from developing to developed.