RNIIIS at the UN

On July 10, 2023, at the headquarters of WIPO (Geneva, Switzerland), as part of the 64th series of meetings of the WIPO Assembly (July 6-14, 2023), a consultative meeting of the Director General of WIPO, Mr. Daren Tang, with the heads and experts of more than 50 non-governmental organizations from around the world on intellectual property issues for sustainable development was held UN. Vladimir Lopatin, Scientific Director of the RNIIIS (the only specialized non-profit non-governmental organization on intellectual property issues in the post-Soviet space), took part in the meeting on behalf of Russia and other countries of the EAEU and the CIS, who is a UN expert (since 2019).

 Sharing the conviction of Mr. D. Tang that "intellectual property can be a powerful factor of growth and development, as well as an important tool for putting great ideas into practice to achieve the goals of sustainable human development and the implementation of an integrated approach in the interests of everyone," as he stated at a recent conference in Portugal (Lisbon, 29-30 May 2023), Vladimir Lopatin emphasized the importance of preserving at the same time the strategic line of WIPO for the continuation of traditions.

         It is "development in the interests of everyone and everyone" that the annual International Forum "Innovative Development through the Intellectual Property Market" is held in Russia and the CIS within the framework of the UN International Intellectual Property Day, co-organized and directed by the RNIIIS. Since the next International Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2024 will be dedicated to the Sustainable Development Goals, the representative of Russia, referring to the Final Document – recommendations of this XIV International Forum (2023), distributed to all participants of the meeting at WIPO, focused on three main problems related to politicization, digitalization and standardization in the field of intellectual property. In his opinion, these problems are of fundamental importance for achieving the stated goals, as they can become significant challenges and risks for WIPO itself.

Firstly, it is unacceptable to involve the sphere of intellectual property in a political and information struggle and other hybrid warfare. The greater the politicization, the greater the risks of increasing regionalization in international law and its application. In modern conditions of paralysis of international law and the existing institutions of its enforcement, attempts to use intellectual property as a "bargaining chip" in the geopolitical interests of the United States and its vassals are intensifying. This forces other countries, in particular the "Big Twenty" (Russia, its allies in the EAEU, CIS, SCO and BRICS) to conduct an inventory of international treaties and determine the feasibility of their application at the regional level. In a multipolar World, one of such centers of the new world order in the interests of the "development of everyone and everyone" can be the Great Eurasian Partnership, which accounts for 70% of the world's population and 50% of global GDP.

Secondly, a number of provisions of the Stockholm Convention (1967) establishing WIPO require clarification and amendments. On the one hand, according to Article 16 of the Convention, no reservations to the Convention are allowed. On the other hand, various interpretations of its individual provisions and its place in international law are multiplying, even in cases of references to its individual articles in other international treaties ratified by national laws. In particular, innovation proposals and traditional knowledge can be attributed to intellectual property objects, and new objects of the digital agenda and artificial intelligence need to be more clearly defined.

Thirdly, standardization (national, regional and international) can become a universal regulator of "soft law" for the purposes of creating and developing an intellectual property economy, which implies a new level and order of interaction between WIPO and ISO/IEC. It is necessary to build a "bridge" between these headquarters of reputable international organizations located in Geneva. As Chairman of the interstate and national technical committees for standardization "Intellectual Property" MTK 550/TC 481, Vladimir Lopatin expressed readiness to help in this matter. In Russia and the CIS, the national and interstate technical committees for standardization "Intellectual Property" (TC 481 / MTK 550) with a secretariat based on the RNIIIS have been established and have been operating, respectively, since 2009/2017. By 2022, the first national system of standards "Intellectual Property" has been created in Russia on the basis of more than 25 standards developed at the RNIIIS and adopted, including 8 interstate standards in this area aimed at developing the economy of intellectual property. Most of them are unique, have no analogues in the world and can become the basis for international standards under ISO/IEC with the active participation of WIPO.

On the sidelines of the sessions in Geneva, meetings were also held on the organization and development of cooperation of the head of the RNIIIS with the heads of delegations and their representatives to WIPO from the EAEU countries, the CIS, China, India, Vietnam, several Arab countries, as well as with the head of the EAPO and representatives of a number of WIPO units.

 

 

RNIIIS Press Service

 

2012 RNIIIS at the UN - Republican Scientific Research Institute of Intellectual Property (RSRIIP). © RSRIP