UK National Statement for WIPO General Assemblies

The Delegation of the United Kingdom thanks the Director General and Secretariat for their hard work in preparing this Assembly.

The United Kingdom believes that the WIPO Secretariat has made significant progress over the last year in providing a transparent and efficient service to its member states. We trust that WIPO will continue to reform as an organisation, so that WIPO is able to deliver the aims and objectives mandated to it. For this to happen, the Secretariat and the Director General need the full cooperation, support and trust of all member states.

The Director General has rightly set an ambitious agenda of reform for WIPO. As the only global IP institution, WIPO has a key role to play in tackling the challenges facing the intellectual property system. These challenges require not only implementation of the standards and norms set by WIPO’s rule-making bodies, but also the development and implementation of new IP policies that help tackle some of the common challenges facing all member states. WIPO also has a leading role in promoting the benefits of IP rights to member states and their constituents.

The United Kingdom is pleased to see WIPO concentrating on specific issues on the IP agenda. Delivering on detailed policy proposals will be critical in maintaining WIPO’s credibility and relevance. Therefore the United Kingdom welcomes the proposed reform of the Patent Cooperation Treaty to increase its effectiveness and believes that the road map produced by the Director General represents positive progress. The United Kingdom is also keen to make progress on solutions to the problem of access to works for the benefit of visually impaired people. Effective financial governance and project management will be crucial to the success of the development agenda and we support a thematic approach to the implementation of the remaining recommendations of the Committee on Development and IP. The United Kingdom also hopes that WIPO can make progress on a Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasts and that a renewed mandate is achieved for the Inter Governmental Conference on IP and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore.

The United Kingdom looks forward to the arrival of the new senior management team at WIPO, which is an important step forward in helping the Director General translate his strategic vision into reality. WIPO has made important progress with its internal reform over the last twelve months and the United Kingdom would encourage the Director General and the senior management team to maintain this momentum. In particular, the United Kingdom would like to see an extension of the organisation’s Risk Register; a clear road map of how the organisation is implementing its Strategic Reform Programme; and an annual Statement of Internal Control, as used in other UN bodies.

If member states are truly committed to making this a new era for the organisation, then we must demonstrate our commitment by confronting the challenges that lie before us in a constructive manner. Member states must strive to work around deadlocks that have hindered us in the past. We must concentrate on what we can achieve at WIPO, rather than what we cannot.

The United Kingdom looks forward to a positive General Assembly and to making substantive progress on all of the issues that lie before us.

Date of release: 24 September 2009