WIPO 54th General Assemblies (Geneva 22-30 September 2014), General Statement delivered by H.E. the Ambassador of Greece

GREECE

Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO

54th Series of Meetings

Geneva, September 22nd, 2014

General Statement (Agenda item 5)

Greece would like to associate itself with the statement made by the European Union and its Member States and the one delivered by Japan on behalf of Group B.

Greece attaches great importance to intellectual property as a vehicle of achieving and protecting financial growth on a solid basis. At the same time, we recognize the distinctive role of WIPO within the United Nations family and we are pleased to attend this series of Meetings of the General Assemblies in this beautiful new Conference Hall.

Having followed closely the Organization’s input during the last years we believe that this Organization’s work has come to a crucial juncture.

In this regard, while we note with deep regret that none of the highly qualified EU member state candidates was included in the Senior Management Team, we stand ready to see the effective stewardship of the new Team, in pursuance of this Organization’s strategic goals.

As regards the Design Law Treaty, the draft elaborated is mature enough to be submitted to a Diplomatic Conference. While technical assistance and capacity building needs ought to be accommodated, they should not hinder any efforts to improve the intellectual property system worldwide.

In terms of pragmatic economic deliverables, Greece strongly supports the convening of a Diplomatic Conference on the Revision of the Lisbon System according to the decision taken during the General Assembly of 2013. We are confident that this will pave the way to a wider protection of Geographic Indications.

Furthermore, we would like to express our concerns with regard to the discussions within the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights and in particular as far as the exceptions and limitations of libraries and archives as well as educational teaching and research institutions are concerned. We should explore what the issues we agree on are and continue discussions on those issues rather than continue general never-ending discussions, which do not seem to lead to a practical outcome.

Increasing globalization of supply chains and trade outlines the importance of international cooperation on IP rights and their protection and enforcement. Therefore, we would strongly support the adoption of an additional standing item on the agenda of the Advisory Committee on Enforcement, consisting of voluntary presentations of national enforcement regimes.

Though progress has been achieved in the work of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, many outstanding issues remainunresolved. Further examination of the elaborated texts is required.The establishment of a realistic work program for the next two years should be carefully examined taking into consideration the cost of meetings and the lack of agreement in the past sessions.

International harmonization of patent law is strongly supported by Greece. For this reason, we support the continuation of discussions in the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents.

Our support is also extended to the work of the Patent Cooperation Treaty Working Group. Improvement of the PCT system should be a continuous effort to respond to the changing needs of users, third parties and patent Offices worldwide.

We look forward to the discussion of the agenda issues and express our willingness to contribute towards finding fair and balanced solutions in the spirit of cooperation and to the benefit of all parties involved.