UNCTAD Ad Hoc Expert Meeting on the Green Economy: Trade and Sustainable Development Implications 8-10 November Panel 3: ENHANCING TECHNOLOGY ACCESS AND TRANSFER
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. On behalf of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, WIPO, I am pleased to be here to share this podium on enhancing technology access and transfer, and promoting the uptake of green technologies; and we thank you for the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn from each other s experiences, opinions and views. No one argues that innovation and technology have a key role to play in supporting the transition to a green economy. The question is how can developing countries build the capacity to innovate and how can they access, disseminate and use low carbon technologies to support green growth. As soon as the question is asked, the issue of the role played by intellectual property rights is raised. Often, the answers offered make a simple connection between the monopoly rights conferred by patents and the high prices that result. The conclusion being that IP makes new technologies unaffordable for developing countries. However, simple answers are not sufficient for complex problems.
To paraphrase Achim Steiner s comments in his presentation yesterday morning: looking after the environment should not be a trade off with development. New clean technologies support both development and environment goals. Our challenge is to help developing countries acquire such technologies in an affordable way, while ensuring that there are appropriate incentives for investments in the risky business of developing new green technologies. The UNCTAD background paper alludes to the fact that there is a line of thought that pertains to the role that intellectual property rights (IPRs) might play in green technology dissemination, and that some have argued that the world s environmental problems are urgent enough to justify compulsory licensing of critically important technologies, for example in the area of climate adaptation and mitigation. The reference to the WTO s Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health as a precedent on which to build may somewhat be different. For one thing, pharmaceutical product manufacturing is easier in contrast to green technologies.
The paper gives an example of the manufacturing of a wind turbine, which is made up of hundreds of working parts, all under separate patents and often owned across a number of firms, requiring the new owner to source essential working knowledge, the maintenance, operation etc., that is vested in the commercial owners of the patents, depending on the technology involved. These challenges suggest that compulsory licensing in the area of green technologies may not be an effective course of action for many technologies and should be made on a case-by-case basis, and according to the technology in question. It is also worth remembering that, as the UNCTAD paper points out, many of the technologies we are talking about are not protected by intellectual property rights in the countries that are seeking access to them. So compulsory licensing is not an option. It is not to say that there are no situations where IP is an issue, however we should be careful not to allow it to distract from the work we must engage in to make the transition to a green economy a reality.
Focusing our attention on practical solutions which make tangible gains for developing countries in accessing and using green technologies should be a key goal for Rio+20. Existing IPR laws are not able to distinguish between countries at different stages of development in ways that might help IPRs to fully contribute to development objectives. WIPO therefore has a responsibility to make certain that IP plays its proper role in accelerating socioeconomic development. Intellectual Property is a tool to achieve wider policy goals it is not an end in itself. One important and often overlooked aspect of the patent system is the requirement for full disclosure of the technologies that are patented. This provides a rich body of technological information which can provide a major contribution to supporting innovation and technology transfer. Clearly patent information is an important resource for researchers and inventors, entrepreneurs and commercial enterprises, and patent professionals.
The patent system aims to encourage innovation and economic growth by protecting creativity and rewarding investments made in developing a new invention; and by publishing and disclosing technical information related to new inventions. But we know that access to technology information, contained in patent applications, has expanded rapidly in recent years, as the quantities of technology information available to the public have grown too, so are the challenges of finding relevant information from which useful knowledge can be extracted. It is for that reason that WIPO is making its own contribution in this area, to the extent that we can, and offers a number of services to facilitate easy access to this information, as well as technology analysis and reports, and services to make use of this information to support innovation and technology transfer. WIPO s global technology databases, infrastructure and support services make a major contribution to ensuring access to scientific and technological information, including state of the art technologies,
particularly for developing countries and least developed countries. I would like to share with you some of WIPO s initiatives and services that are aimed at helping those interested in a particular technology field to find the information they are looking for easily. The PATENTSCOPE search service provides free access to the technology contained in over 8 million patent documents. A figure that will increase to 12 million by the end of 2011. If one wants to know about technology developments in a particular area, then they can subscribe to a real simple syndication (RSS) feed. And for environmentally sensitive technologies we have specially created the International Patent Classification Green Inventory which enables one to quickly and easily find all patents relating to Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs), as listed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Making sense of all this information is not always easy. One good place to start is the Patent Landscape Reports. These describe the patent
situation for a specific technology in a given country, region or on the global level. WIPO provides a library of recently produced reports, most are available free of charge. We have more than 20 such landscapes available off the shelf on environmentally sensitive technologies available. Access to Research for Development and Innovation (ARDI) program is coordinated by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and aims to increase the availability of scientific and technical information in developing countries. But if one needs something more bespoke, then a number of commercial products are available. Commercial service providers have created powerful tools for retrieving and analyzing patent data available in commercial patent databases. The bad news is that they are expensive several hundred Euros an hour. But the good news is that WIPO has created a partnership to provide low-cost access to their premier patent information products for patent offices as well as academic and research institutions in many developing countries, and free
access to offices and institutions located in least developed countries. Of course patent data is only part of the picture. A further important part of the picture is information made available in scientific journals and publications. Again these can be costly. WIPO has created a partnership to improve access to scholarly literature from diverse fields of science and technology, with a particular focus on applied science and technology. As recent as last month, WIPO joined the Research4Life partnership; a public-private partnership between a number of UN agencies, publishers and leading universities, and aims to provide affordable access to critical scientific research. However, even providing this range of services, it is not enough if there is no support on the ground to explain them to users and guide them through the options available. It is for that reason that WIPO, together with national and regional industrial property authorities, started to create Technology and Innovation Support Centers TISCs which are
designed to provide innovators in developing countries with access to locally based, high quality technology information services and other related services, within the context of a joint engagement with national and regional industrial property authorities These can not only facilitate access to patent databases and other scientific and technology resources; but also train local users through on-site and distance learning; provide information and training materials; and support awareness-raising activities. And more broadly WIPO also contributes to needs assessment and capacity building in developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs) so that they can effectively use IP for development, taking into account their broader development goals as reflected in national development plans. Based on the needs assessment, WIPO supports the development and implementation of country-owned and tailored National IP and Innovation Strategies. The UNCTAD background paper asks the question - how can green technology transfer be accelerated?
Since developing countries remain disadvantaged because most of them lack the sophisticated regulatory and institutional frameworks, as well as the business environments needed to attract technology transfer; and developed country governments also have limited power to promote technology transfer since they do not often have direct ownership over technologies. Universities and governments can stimulate technological progress, but it is the private sector which effectively bridges technology deployment between countries. So how can green technology transfer be accelerated? One of the Divisions in the Department I am heading, the Global Challenges Division, which was established in 2010, was a further attempt by WIPO, to ensure that IPRs make a positive contribution to solving some of the world s most pressing problems; and one of WIPO s Development Agenda recommendations asks of WIPO to explore IP-related policies and initiatives necessary to promote the transfer and dissemination of technology to the benefit of developing countries. The division has embarked on a new venture called WIPO Green. This is a practical approach to harnessing the IP system to make it more broadly
available to the kinds of technology that can significantly contribute to worldwide efforts towards achieving a low-carbon economy. Its key objectives are the accelerated adaptation, adoption and deployment of environmental technologies, and it is targeted at developing countries and emerging economies. The aim of WIPO Green is to act as a reliable focal point where prospective users can obtain relevant worldwide information and learn about new technologies in specific areas. Our new web-based interface will enable owners of proprietary technologies to make selected technologies and solutions available as packages, including related know-how, services and materials. It also hopes to facilitate the matching of specific user-formulated needs with technology providers, provide additional services, including training, consulting, tailor-made dispute resolution and assistance in getting financial support. WIPO will act as a hub connecting various critical partners, and facilitating policy dialogue and networking.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) calls for all parties to promote and cooperate in the development, application and diffusion, including, transfer of environmentally sound technologies; WIPO Green is a contribution to that, and will operate to support the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism, and more specifically the Climate Technology Center and Network. On 11/12 July WIPO hosted a conference, a policy forum on this topic with a specific objective of bringing together leading thinkers, government, academia, IGOs and NGOs, and the private sector in green technology industries; to explore strategies and identify tools and develop solutions to promote innovation, knowledge and technology transfer; and look at how IP can make a contribution to adaptation and diffusion to meet the pressing challenge of climate change. WIPO is committed to making these global technology databases available to the UNFCCC and the Technology Mechanism arising from it. These
are valuable assets which the global community, especially developing and least developed countries need to take full advantage of as we put together an international response to this global crisis. Indeed the relationship between IPRs and green technologies is a relatively new field and evidence base is still under construction. ICTSD, from whom you will hear shortly, have done excellent work in this area. One piece of evidence that was presented at the conference was a study commissioned by the division, entitled Intellectual Property and the transfer of environmentally sound technologies, by Meir Pugatch. Copies are available outside. In conclusion, it is undoubtedly true that technology has a role to play in facing up to the challenge of climate change. Creating an innovative response to that challenge through the appropriate use of technology is something that WIPO, as the UN agency for intellectual property, has a responsibility to undertake. WIPO, as the leading intergovernmental forum for addressing the interface between intellectual
property and global policy issues, has as one of its strategic goals, to contribute to the shared search for solutions to the major challenges facing humanity, namely public health, food security, protection of biodiversity, including challenges relating to climate change. We are facing up to that challenge. In some respects the traditional features of the IP system serve this purpose well. I ve mentioned the global technology databases that WIPO maintains which are a fabulous asset and resource. But we also have to innovate and grow our response using the tools available. So I am delighted that we are bringing forward WIPO Green. This will be a major contribution to making available the kinds of technologies that are necessary. And we stand ready to make further contributions. Ladies and Gentlemen, a balanced intellectual property system, respecting both the needs of creators and innovators as well as consumers, is especially important. The patent system as it is anyway requires significant disclosure of the information leading to the invention. Without the
patent system, such key technical information would remain unavailable or even secret. Thank you for listening