The IPA delegation is now almost complete with members from Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, and the UK already in Geneva – ready to explain the reality of their markets to their national and group delegates as well as their national ambassadors. We await a couple more delegates tomorrow to register the full team. Also on the fringes of SCCR was a meeting of the different stakeholders, which include IPA, involved in WIPO for Creators.
The morning session had been expected to move into informals (off the record discussions between Member States away from the plenary chamber) but the range of questions from Member States and observers filled the morning with Chair Owen Ripley thanking the participants for enabling the ‘airing of technical issues’ and for their willingness to engage on substance.
The first of the two side events was built around the question ‘The Global Library – a Vision or Utopia’ which featured Kate Parson (National Library of Sweden – Project lead for EU project Eod Open), Jerker Rydén (National Library of Sweden) and former SCCR vice-chair Karol Kościński (now Deputy CEO and Chief International Officer of ZAiKS). They presented a session based around the use of Collective Licensing (mandated or extended) to tackle specific access challenges for research in a way that reduces burden for institutions but provides legal certainty taking examples of Swedish audiovisual archives and a possible cross-border cooperation with an institution in Malawi.
Tuesday’s afternoon discussions shifted to informals which the Chair characterised as good, constructive, and collaborative. The broadcasting agenda item was closed with discussions with regional groups to continue in the background before confirming next steps later in the week.
Formal discussions closed with the opening of agenda items 6 and 7 – discussions on exceptions and limitations – with 3 main elements up for discussion: 1) a draft toolkit on preservation, 2) a scoping study on the practices and challenges of research institutions and research purposes in relation to copyright, and 3) the Proposal by the African Group for a Draft work Program on Exceptions and Limitations.
There was time for initial statements from regional groups and a number of Member States. All welcomed the dialogue on the issue but there is still a significant split between Groups and Member States that believe the current international framework is sufficient and those that believe international legal instruments are required.
The second side event of the day was “What is the role of model laws in norm setting for intellectual property?” organised by Knowledge Ecology International (KEI). You can see twitter posts and slides from that event here.
Tomorrow’s lunchtime side event will be organized by WIPO’s IP for Business Division (IPBD) and Information and Digital Outreach Division (IDOD), on the WIPO IP Diagnostics for Publishers and featuring IPA President, Karine Pansa. That session will take place in the New Building, NB0.107 at 13:00.