Development agenda in the World Intellectual Property Organization

Abstract

"A major development on Intellectual Property Rights in October 2005 went virtually unnoticed. The General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reached an agreement to continue work on a development agenda for WIPO that was being pushed for by most developing countries. WIPO's recognition of a development agenda has been described by Joseph Stiglitz as: "as important as the World Trade Organization's decision that the current round of trade negotiations be devoted to development", and further that it "acknowledge(s) that the current rules of the international economic game reflect the interests of the advanced industrial countries - especially of their big corporations - more than the interests of the developing world""