Description

In October 2002, a group of Geneva-based negotiators, capital-based policy-makers and eminent experts came together at the Rockefeller Foundation's facilities in Bellagio, Italy to formulate a development-oriented IP agenda. Over the past three years, successive 'Bellagio Dialogues' have continued a collective process of developing and promoting the idea of a positive negotiating agenda dealing with TRIPS and the harmonization of IP standards both at WIPO and in bilateral and regional agreements.

Since 2002, three follow-up dialogues have been organized by ICTSD and UNCTAD, during which the development-oriented agenda was further refined by focusing on selected issues such as public health, test data protection, access to knowledge, transfer of technology, regional and bilateral agreements and technical assistance. Ex-post assessment of these annual meetings revealed that they have provided benefits including intellectual leadership, a crucial space for networking, monitoring and analysis of trends, collaboration, campaigning, collective action and targeted research. It has also proved to be particularly effective in generating new ideas and innovative approaches and disseminating them to key actors.

The Fifth Bellagio Dialogue built on the work carried out in previous dialogues and drew on the current effort in WIPO to adopt a Development Agenda. As in the past, it brought together scholars and actors on IP policy debates to build common understandings through an exchange of views and analysis. The dialogue reviewed the main developments at the multilateral and domestic level and new challenges for a pro-development agenda. Areas of particular focus included the processes of patent and copyright harmonization that are currently taking place.

The main objectives of the Fifth Bellagio Dialogue are to:
• Take stock of work carried out on an intellectual property (IP) development-oriented agenda at the multilateral and domestic level;
• Explore new directions and ways forward for a pro-development IP process;
• Relate recent developments at the multilateral level to domestic IP agendas in keycountries.
• Explore new ways and means to advance the IP development agenda.

Topics discussed included:
• Patent reform and harmonisation at the international level;
• Copyright reform and harmonisation at the international level;
• Complementary policy components of a positive agenda;
• Exploring options and modalities to move these processes forward.