Opening statement by India on behalf of Asia and the Pacific Group at the Eleventh Session of WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement, delivered by Dr. Sumit Seth, First Secretary(Economic) on 5 September 2016

Madam Chair,

India has the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Asia and the Pacific Group.

Madam Chair,

We are confident that under your able leadership we will have a very productive session of this advisory committee. We’d like to congratulate Ms. Pamella Wille for being elected as the Vice Chair. Our group would also like to thank the WIPO Secretariat for organising preparatory informal consultations & providing documents for this meeting.

Madam Chair,

The Advisory Committee on Enforcement has the mandate to carry out technical assistance and coordination in the field of IP enforcement. Asia and the Pacific group expects that the technical assistance provided by WIPO on IP enforcement should be in accordance with the spirit of the Development Agenda Recommendation number 45, which calls upon WIPO to address IP enforcement in the context of broader societal interests and especially development-oriented concerns.

Our group firmly believes that the protection and enforcement of IP rights should contribute to the promotion of technological innovation, at the same time we are of the view that it should also transfer and disseminate technology, to the mutual advantage of producers and users in a manner conducive to social and economic welfare, and a balance of rights and obligations.

Therefore, it becomes important that WIPO approaches the issue of enforcement of intellectual property rights in a more holistic manner to ensure that the means to enforce intellectual property rights are in line with the objectives of Article 7 of the TRIPS Agreement, as stated in recommendation 45 of the WIPO Development Agenda.

Madam Chair

The Tenth Session of the ACE had agreed to consider four main thematic clusters at the Eleventh Session. However, from the agenda of this session of ACE it seems that all of the elements of the work programme have not been given equal weightage.

Our group believes that a very limited time has been allocated for discussion of element 3 of the work programme on the topic of exchange of information on national experiences of WIPO’s legislative assistance on IP enforcement taking into account the flexibilities, the level of development, differences in legal traditions and the possible abuse of enforcement procedures.

Asia and the Pacific Group would like to request the WIPO Secretariat to give a presentation regarding how the use of flexibilities and measures to safeguard against abuse of IP rights are reflected in its legislative assistance activities.

Our group is of the view that the evaluation of Strategic Goal VI and Program 17 by the WIPO Internal Oversight Division was based on a limited sample size and did not represent adequately the developing countries and LDCs.

Therefore, my group would like to see a thorough review of WIPO’s technical assistance in the area of IP enforcement and this should become part of the future work of ACE.

Madam Chair

Adequate training is necessary to ensure that relevant government institutions involved in IP enforcement can adequately determine on a case by case basis the balance between the interest of the right holders and the wider public interest.

Asia and the Pacific Group would like to request the Secretariat to present all training and capacity-building materials for the review of the Member States in the future session of the Advisory Committee on Enforcement.

Our group would propose that the future session of the ACE should also discuss the important issue on how broader public policy questions are addressed in IP enforcement proceedings.

Madam Chair

The Group’s members would make interventions during the discussions on specific agenda items. We look forward to contributing to the discussions in the Committee and hope for an educative and insightful session.

With these words, I thank you for the opportunity.