Press Release
U.S. ignores public interest at World Intellectual Property Organization
Contact: Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838
WASHINGTON – Free Press, the nonpartisan media reform group, today endorsed a series of proposed reforms to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a U.N. organization whose mission is to "promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world." The Development Agenda reforms would transform the nature of the organization and make it more accountable to public interest concerns.
"The World Intellectual Property Organization has been a tool of industry for too long," said Sasha Costanza-Chock, global policy coordinator of Free Press. "The Development Agenda proposal would reform WIPO so that the needs of people in both developing and developed countries would come before the profit margins of Big Media."
WIPO is responsible for administration of 23 international treaties on copyright, patents and other forms of "intellectual property rights." The Development Agenda proposal, written by Brazil and Argentina, backed by 12 other developing countries, and supported by hundreds of public interest organizations and scientists, would prioritize development concerns within all WIPO work.
Currently, WIPO pushes developing country governments to adopt strict, U.S.-style copyright, patent and trademark law, which focuses on protecting corporations. The U.S. delegation to WIPO, headed by Paul Salmon of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is opposing the move to reform WIPO.
"The Development Agenda proposal is an attempt to ensure the rights of all to have access to knowledge," Costanza-Chock said. "The U.S. government should be supporting the free flow of information, not protecting the monopoly control of information by multinational corporations. It's clear to anyone who isn't on the industry payroll that the current global system of patents and copyrights is wildly out of balance, tilted in the extreme to protect the monopoly rights of big corporations over the rights of citizens."
Free Press and the Consumer Project on Technology have teamed up to provide blow-by-blow coverage of events, blogging from inside the WIPO negotiations. Daily reports and more information on WIPO are available at www.mediatrademonitor.org.
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Free Press (www.freepress.net) is a national, nonpartisan organization that seeks to increase informed public participation in media policy and to promote a more competitive, public interest-oriented media system. Free Press was founded by University of Illinois professor, media scholar and author Robert W. McChesney.
"The World Intellectual Property Organization has been a tool of industry for too long," said Sasha Costanza-Chock, global policy coordinator of Free Press. "The Development Agenda proposal would reform WIPO so that the needs of people in both developing and developed countries would come before the profit margins of Big Media."
WIPO is responsible for administration of 23 international treaties on copyright, patents and other forms of "intellectual property rights." The Development Agenda proposal, written by Brazil and Argentina, backed by 12 other developing countries, and supported by hundreds of public interest organizations and scientists, would prioritize development concerns within all WIPO work.
Currently, WIPO pushes developing country governments to adopt strict, U.S.-style copyright, patent and trademark law, which focuses on protecting corporations. The U.S. delegation to WIPO, headed by Paul Salmon of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is opposing the move to reform WIPO.
"The Development Agenda proposal is an attempt to ensure the rights of all to have access to knowledge," Costanza-Chock said. "The U.S. government should be supporting the free flow of information, not protecting the monopoly control of information by multinational corporations. It's clear to anyone who isn't on the industry payroll that the current global system of patents and copyrights is wildly out of balance, tilted in the extreme to protect the monopoly rights of big corporations over the rights of citizens."
Free Press and the Consumer Project on Technology have teamed up to provide blow-by-blow coverage of events, blogging from inside the WIPO negotiations. Daily reports and more information on WIPO are available at www.mediatrademonitor.org.
###
Free Press (www.freepress.net) is a national, nonpartisan organization that seeks to increase informed public participation in media policy and to promote a more competitive, public interest-oriented media system. Free Press was founded by University of Illinois professor, media scholar and author Robert W. McChesney.
