RNIIIS at the United Nations (2024)

On July 11, 2024, at the headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (Geneva, Switzerland), as part of the 65th series of meetings of the WIPO Assembly (July 9-17, 2024, more than 1,400 participants), the annual traditional consultative meeting of the Director General of WIPO, Mr. Daren Tang, took place in the WIPO Partnership Dialogue with executives and experts 50 non-governmental organizations from around the world on intellectual property issues for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

 In his report (30 min.), Daren Tang elaborated on the assessment of the global state of intellectual property (hereinafter - IP), highlighting several trends:

- increased activity in the field of IP, and above all in the field of copyright (in 2022, more than 23 million applications for IP were submitted (70% from Asia, Africa and Latin America), which is almost three times more than 15 years ago;

- the growth in the value of intangible assets (more than 60 trillion US dollars in the present century, which exceeds the value of the world's leading economies combined), over the past 15 years investments in intangible assets have grown three times faster than in tangible assets, reaching almost 7 trillion dollars in 2023;

- innovation models are also evolving and changing, with digital innovations becoming more important and merging with industrial innovations (almost a third of all patent applications relate to digital technologies);

- the World has become more divided geopolitically, where "agreement has become difficult and our ability to set global standards and norms has slowed significantly. However, although consensus has become elusive, it has not disappeared." As a successful example, he cited negotiations since 2001, which ended with the signing of the 27th WIPO Treaty on May 24, 2024, which "became the first WIPO treaty that considers genetic resources and traditional knowledge through the prism of IP and includes provisions specifically taking into account the interests of indigenous peoples and local communities."

The conclusion of WIPO is of fundamental importance for the development of the economy and the IP market: "This means that we can no longer afford to treat IP only in separate legal repositories, but instead as a portfolio of intangible assets that are used by businesses for growth and by countries for development. IP policy development should become more coordinated and holistic, considering IP as a horizontal rather than a vertical sphere." This is also the goal of a new initiative by WIPO to organize a Second Global Forum of Representatives of the Innovation and Financial Communities on the Assessment of IP and the use of IP as a financial asset.

Vladimir Lopatin, Scientific director of the RNIIIS (the only specialized non-profit non-governmental organization on intellectual property issues in the post-Soviet space), Chairman of the interstate and national technical committees for standardization "Intellectual Property" MTK 550/TC 481, Chairman of the Commission on Intellectual Property of the AYUR, took part in the meeting and spoke on behalf of Russia and other EAEU and CIS countries. which is from 2019. he is a UN expert.

Before the meeting, all participants were given (in English) the final document – recommendations of the XV International Forum "Innovative Development through the Intellectual Property Market" (04/23/2024, Moscow) and proposals from the Intellectual Property Commission of the Russian Bar Association on countermeasures against new discriminatory measures in the field of intellectual property adopted as part of the 14th package of anti-Russian EU sanctions dated 06/24/2024, indicating that these documents had previously been sent to the management of WIPO (05/14/2024 No. 1-57-17 and 05/07/2024 No. 1-90-1).

Also, drawing the attention of the WIPO management and the participants of the meeting to the exclusion of Russian from the working languages of the meeting and the inadmissibility of discrediting the Russian language as the official language of the United Nations and WIPO (the Convention on the Establishment of WIPO in 1967 was signed in 4 languages, including Russian), the translation of the abstracts of his speech was distributed to all participants of the meeting.

Vladimir Lopatin, referring to the Final Document – recommendations of the XV International Forum (2024), distributed to all participants of the meeting at WIPO, briefly focused on four main problems in the field of intellectual property and recommendations for their solution, which, in his opinion, are of fundamental importance for achieving the stated goals of sustainable development in a multipolar World.

(1) Sustainable Development Goals and the economics of intellectual property. Among the UN SDGs (17 goals - 169 targets - 247 indicators), four Goals are directly related to the field of innovation (№8; №9, №10; №17), but intellectual property issues (hereinafter referred to as IP) are not stated anywhere in the SDGs as a task or indicator. Based on the results of a comparative analysis of these UN reports, it can be concluded that there is no correlation between the indicators of human, technological and innovative development indices for the SDGs. This requires the preparation and introduction of amendments and additions to these sections of the UN SDGs and the GSBPM model for the production of statistical information, taking into account the indicators of the WIPO Global Innovation Index (GII) for subsequent consideration at the UN General Assembly, as well as recommendations for changing regional and national sustainable development indicator systems, taking into account the indicators of the intellectual property economy.

(2) Intellectual property and standardization. The field of IP includes three subject areas of regulation: 1) legal protection of intellectual property objects (hereinafter referred to as IPOs), where priority is given to international treaties and WIPO standards; 2) use of IPOs and turnover (commercialization) of property rights to them (lack of regulation); 3) legal protection of IPOs rights (priority is national judicial and jurisdictional protection systems). In the context of fragmentation and conflicts of national IP legislation and insufficient legal regulation in the field of IP commercialization, the role of standardization of IP management processes in ensuring competitiveness and technological sovereignty is sharply increasing. The relevant national and interstate TC "Intellectual Property" have been operating in the Russian Federation and the CIS since 2009-2017 and the first national system of standards in this area (more than 30 standards) has been created. It is long overdue to sign an agreement between WIPO and ISO/IEC with the assignment of IP management and economics issues to priority areas of standardization ensuring national competitiveness, as well as the creation of an international TC for standardization "Intellectual Property" with the assistance of WIPO within the framework of ISO/IEC, taking into account the experience of the Russian Federation and the CIS and the active participation of the countries of the Greater Eurasian Partnership.

(3) Intellectual property and digitalization to reduce socio–economic and technological inequalities between developed and developing countries. In modern conditions, IP and digitalization are used as a means of further enriching the rich and unfair competition towards the poor. In order to reduce socio-economic inequality between countries with the increasing role of IP in the digital economy, the transfer of a number of critical technologies to developing countries, including the countries of the Global South, on preferential terms can be an effective means. It is advisable to create national Registers of critical technologies and develop economic and legal conditions for their preferential transfer and use in developing countries.

(4) Intellectual Property and international Law. The time of empires is over, as is the unipolar world of minority rule. In a multipolar world, one of the centers of the new world order today is the Great Eurasian Partnership (EEC, CIS, SCO and BRICS - 20 countries), which account for more than half of the world's population and 60% of global GDP. At the recent international economic and legal forums (St. Petersburg, 2024), the leaders and representatives of these countries once again confirmed that "fair and safe development of all and everyone" is possible with strict observance by all participants of the norms of international law, which is based on international treaties in the field of intellectual property, the administrator of which is WIPO.

At the same time, attempts to preserve the unipolar world at all costs through a "rules-based order" in the interests of minority domination (the United States and the countries of the "collective West") do not stop. Thus, on June 24, 2024, the 14th package of EU anti-Russian sanctions came into force, including new discriminatory measures in the field of intellectual property that are not provided for by international law and grossly violate the principles and norms of the main international treaties in the field of intellectual property, to which the EU countries are parties.

The application of these sanctions measures is a gross violation of the national and most–favored-nation regime, discrimination not only against certain categories of applicants, but also against countries participating in international treaties in the field of intellectual property, creates legal uncertainty not only for Russian applicants and copyright holders, but also for other users of national, regional and international systems of legal protection of IPOs. At the same time, EU countries and bodies went beyond their competence and illegally appropriated the powers of the International Bureau of WIPO, grossly violating the norms of Article 9 of the Convention establishing WIPO (dated 07/14/1967) and Article 15 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

In this regard, the AIUR Intellectual Property Commission initiates, for consideration within the framework of the Partnership Dialogue between WIPO and Non-governmental Organizations and the agenda of the 65th session of the WIPO Assembly, the issue of responsibility of EU authorities and EU countries (collective and personal) for gross violation of international law in the field of intellectual property in the framework of the adoption and introduction of 14-the package of anti-Russian sanctions dated June 24, 2024.

"We are for the stable operation of the global WIPO system and its development for the UN Sustainable Development Goals based on international law! But we also believe that any attempts to ignore these norms and encroach on the competence of WIPO by any member states of these international treaties should be strictly suppressed by the UN, WIPO and WTO bodies within the framework of their powers," the head of the RNIIIS and the Chairman of the AYUR Commission emphasized at the end of his speech.

Vladimir Lopatin also took part in the 44th meeting of the Administrative Council of the EAPO, which was held on 07/11/2024 at the WIPO site and was dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Eurasian Patent Convention, which is celebrated in September this year.

Speaking at the opening of this meeting, WIPO Director General Daren Tang stressed that "due to the pursuit of excellence, the EAPO remains in the leading position in the field of intellectual property protection in Eurasia. As we celebrate this momentous anniversary, let's also look to the future. The world of innovation is constantly evolving, and the EAPO must continue to develop and flourish. I am confident that due to its continued dedication and focus on progress, the organization will remain a vital pillar for Eurasian inventors and enterprises for many years to come."

In his speech, EAPO President Grigory Ivliev noted: "Today's meeting at WIPO symbolizes continuity, the use of accumulated international experience, the transfer of the best traditions and knowledge from IP specialists who have already become legends of our field. This is evidence of deep integration into the global patent system."

V. Lopatin, who spoke at the end of the meeting, briefly informed about the development of cooperation between the RNIIIS at the interstate (with the EAPO) and national levels (with authorized bodies in the field of intellectual property), including in the field of interstate standardization within the framework of MTK 550 "Intellectual Property" and the need to create a similar international committee for standardization within the framework of ISO c active with the participation of the CIS countries, the EAPO and the BRICS. In this regard, he invited the heads of the EAPO and all national authorized bodies in the field of intellectual property to participate in a special strategic session on intellectual property within the framework of the IX BRICS Legal Forum, which will be held on September 19-21 in Moscow at the MGIMO base of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

After the council meeting, in the presence of the heads of all national authorized bodies in the field of intellectual property of the countries of the Eurasian Commonwealth, the RNIIIS (director Vladimir Lopatin) and the National Patent Information Center of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan (director Mirzo Ismoilzoda) signed an agreement on scientific and innovative cooperation.

On the sidelines of the sessions in Geneva, meetings were also held on the organization and development of cooperation between the head of the RNIIIS with the heads of delegations and heads of diplomatic missions to the United Nations from the EAEU, CIS, Turkmenistan, China, as well as with the head of the EAPO and representatives of a number of WIPO departments.

Following the results of the exhibition of cultural achievements and traditional knowledge of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, which was first organized these days at the UN by Kyrgyzpatent (Director Rakhat Kerimbayeva), V. Lopatin presented his impressions to its participants in his poem "At the UN exhibition".

RNIIIS Press Service