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Intellectual property rights: the quiet killer of Rio+20
Intellectual property rights: the quiet killer of Rio+20
Richard Phillips, president of the Intellectual Property Owners Association, sent a powerful message to Washington the day before the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development regarding the U.S. intellectual property community’s stance on sharing IPR with developing nations. Philips argued any language included in the Rio+20 final declaration compromising the existing IP regime would discourage investment and destroy trade secrets. “Any references to technology transfer should be clearly qualified and conditioned to include only voluntary transfer of IPR on mutually agreed terms.” The IPO has no interest in helping developing countries transition to a more sustainable economy if it means sacrificing valuable IPR. And the IPO’s chilly message set the tone for what many pundits and participants considered a disappointing Rio+20 conference yielding few substantive results.
Owning the majority of climate-related patents, companies in North America, Western Europe and Japan view intellectual property as a key driver to commercial innovation, and an immeasurable advantage in the green marketplace. Developing countries lack the research base and viable technologies required to build a green economy and hoped Rio+20 would create a new mechanism for technology transfer.
Developed nations hold the secrets and developing nations want access to them. And they don’t want to pay market rates. Both sides agree green innovation and technology are bridges to a more sustainable planet. But the U.S. and its Rio+20 allies remain defiant, not willing to surrender first-mover advantages in a nascent industry already subject to mercantilism and IP theft.
So in a fruitless effort, negotiators from over 180 nations handed attendees -- including 100 or so heads of state -- a 49-page document called “The Future We Want.” Watered down and vague, the text included “reaffirm” 59 times and reflected the contentious nature of the event. Nothing much got accomplished, and the sour outcome left doubts to whether big global conferences focused on the environment still serve a purpose. “The Future We Want” is a placeholder for the next world gathering, and does not contain the future developing nations want.
Richard Phillips, president of the Intellectual Property Owners Association, sent a powerful message to Washington the day before the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development regarding the U.S. intellectual property community’s stance on sharing IPR with developing nations. Philips argued any language included in the Rio+20 final declaration compromising the existing IP regime would discourage investment and destroy trade secrets. “Any references to technology transfer should be clearly qualified and conditioned to include only voluntary transfer of IPR on mutually agreed terms.” The IPO has no interest in helping developing countries transition to a more sustainable economy if it means sacrificing valuable IPR. And the IPO’s chilly message set the tone for what many pundits and participants considered a disappointing Rio+20 conference yielding few substantive results.
Owning the majority of climate-related patents, companies in North America, Western Europe and Japan view intellectual property as a key driver to commercial innovation, and an immeasurable advantage in the green marketplace. Developing countries lack the research base and viable technologies required to build a green economy and hoped Rio+20 would create a new mechanism for technology transfer.
Developed nations hold the secrets and developing nations want access to them. And they don’t want to pay market rates. Both sides agree green innovation and technology are bridges to a more sustainable planet. But the U.S. and its Rio+20 allies remain defiant, not willing to surrender first-mover advantages in a nascent industry already subject to mercantilism and IP theft.
So in a fruitless effort, negotiators from over 180 nations handed attendees -- including 100 or so heads of state -- a 49-page document called “The Future We Want.” Watered down and vague, the text included “reaffirm” 59 times and reflected the contentious nature of the event. Nothing much got accomplished, and the sour outcome left doubts to whether big global conferences focused on the environment still serve a purpose. “The Future We Want” is a placeholder for the next world gathering, and does not contain the future developing nations want.
This is in agreement with another recent article that showed the abject failure of Rio+20, but this actually explains why in more detail. The western states want to get paid for renewable IP.
