As developing countries and economies in transition are increasingly implementing IP-related treaties, such as the TRIPS Agreement, as well as participating in new negotiations at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level, the difficult issue of technical assistance has started to receive political attention. Technical assistance, as such, is inevitably not purely technical, as the nature of the provided assistance will have a strong impact on the design and formulation of the respective national intellectual property (IP) related policies. In this sense the questions of who provides technical assistance, how it is presented and what is its scope are of primary importance if these countries are to use IP tools effectively in the pursuit of their sustainable human and economic development goals.

Bearing in mind the limited resources provided for IP technical assistance today, its effectiveness, its inclusiveness in terms of stakeholders, and its openness in addressing both strengths and weaknesses of current programmes, exploring ways to improve them are essential. Surprisingly enough, however, very limited independent analytical work has been undertaken in this area and the literature is scarce.

The objective of this roundtable is to bring together developed and developing country delegates, academics, business groups and NGOs to discuss the substantive challenges posed by the complex task of designing and implementing IP technical assistance in developing countries and economies in transition. This will be achieved by sharing views and experiences among Geneva negotiators and key stakeholders – who are invited in their personal capacity – and exploring underlying interests (See programme in Annex 1). In order to assist the discussion, ICTSD has invited, Mr. Tom PENGELLY from Saana Consulting to prepare a study on the existing provision of “technical assistance for the Formulation and Implementation of Intellectual Property Policy in Developing Countries and Transition Economies”. The Roundtable will be informal and off the record. Formal presentations will be kept to a minimum, allowing for enough time for an open and frank debate.