Pirate Parties Blocked From WIPO After US & Other Countries Complained That They Don't Support WIPO's Mission

from the but-of-course dept

A little over a year ago, the Pirate Parties International (a group representing various different local Pirate Parties) asked for permission to have "observer" status at WIPO, the UN-based World Intellectual Property Organization, an operation somewhat renowned for its generally maximalist agenda. Last year, we noted that, after complaints from Swiss, French and US delegations to WIPO, the PPI request was delayed for an entire year. Well, that year is up... and WIPO has officially rejected the request while it approved all other requests except for the Pirates and Kenya Innovation Council.

Once again, US officials were among the folks trying to block PPI from becoming an observer, expressing concerns that the Pirate Parties "don't support the objectives" of WIPO. So who did get approved? Well, among others, there was the International Society for the Development of Intellectual Property (ADALPI). So it's not like WIPO rejected organizations that came into things with a clearly biased perspective. It just wanted to reject organizations whose position WIPO officials don't like. Ridiculously, as Jamie Love points out, the US State Department first talked about being able to discuss things "free from undue interference or censorship" and then went out and blocked the Pirate Parties from being able to join WIPO as observers. Hypocritical as always. And, if you're wondering, other political parties have been allowed into other UN organizations in the past, so it's not just because the Pirates are a political party.

Once again, we see that WIPO is not actually focused on determining the most effective intellectual property regime, but rather they'll push for protectionism and maximalism because a few countries benefit strongly from such positions. And they'll even go so far as to lock out organizations that have other viewpoints.

Filed Under: intellectual property, ngos, observers, pirate parties international, state department, wipo