According to a press release by the Press Information Bureau, the three-day meeting, inaugurated by Dr. Ajay Dua, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary (DIPP) was organized by Department, in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and industry (FICCI) and National Intellectual Property Organization (NIPO).

The proposal to establish a Development Agenda contains 111 proposals made by member countries of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

A broad consensus was reached on a number of proposals which have special significant for developing countries.   Some of these important proposals are: 

•  Proposal to strengthen WIPO’s technical cooperation program, taking into account the different levels of development of member states in designing, delivering and evaluating technical assistance. 

• To create a WIPO Partnership Program Database, an internet-based tool to facilitate the strategic use of intellectual property by developing countries by bringing together all stakeholders to match specific IPR-related development needs with available resources, thereby amplifying the impact of intellectual property development assistance.

• To devise innovative ways and means, including the fostering of transfer of technology, to enable SMEs take better advantage of flexibilities as provided by relevant international agreements and to explore policies, initiatives and reforms necessary to ensure the transfer and dissemination of technology to the benefit of developing countries.

• To approach intellectual property enforcement in the context of broader societal interests and development-related concerns, in accordance with Article 7 of the TRIPs Agreement.

Participants from 22 countries were generally in favor of carrying forward the Development Agenda and were also of the opinion that some kind of harmonization could be brought in by merging some of the proposals to address concerns of all stakeholders for expeditious consideration in the ensuing meeting of the WIPO Provisional Committee on Development Agenda.

Discussions were held on 6 clusters in which all the 111 proposals were categorized. The major issues discusses were: Technical Assistance and Capacity Building; Norm-setting, Flexibilities, Public Policy and Public Domain; Technology Transfer, Information and Communication Technology and Access to Knowledge; Assessments, Evaluation and Impact Studies; Institutional matters including Mandate and governance.