The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held an Information Meeting on Database Protection at WIPO headquarters in Geneva Switzerland, 17-19 September, 1997. The meeting was convened to discuss possible actions on a treaty to protect intellectual property rights in databases.

• The meeting only discussed issues and took no concrete steps towards a developing a new database treaty.
• Action at the international level has been indefinitely postponed.

The consensus of the meeting was that the issue of database protection was not ready for WIPO action. Further deliberations at the national and regional level were needed before the elements of a future treaty, if any, could be defined. Such a view was not shared by the European Union and by most of the European delegations who spoke. However, the tone of the meeting was probably established by the USA which made the first intervention of the meeting. The US delegation urged that any attempt to reach international consensus on the substantial issues take place only after a full discussion of the basic policy issues involved. This view was echoed by nearly all the developing nations and by developed nations outside Europe, such as Japan, Canada, Australia, and Singapore.

South Africa, speaking for the African regional group, argued that WIPO should not rush into an experts meeting or a diplomatic conference. Rather, national discussions and study, followed by regional meetings should precede another WIPO information meeting. Only then should the process advance to a committee of experts, if deemed appropriate.

Many delegations expressed the view that sufficient means for protection of databases already existed, such as copyright, unfair competition, and contract law.

The issue of exemptions for research and education was addressed by many delegations. The European Union argued that their directive sufficiently protected research and education and that it could serve as a model for a WIPO treaty. It was clear from the positions of the intergovernmental organizations and many of the non-governmental organizations that the research community was not convinced. The World Meteorological Organization and UNESCO made strong arguments in favor of the public interest benefits of open exchange of data for scientific purposes. In his summary, the chairman noted the need to account for science and education in any future deliberations.

WIPO will be preparing for national, regional, and inter-regional discussions and consultations on the need for international agreement on database protection. To prepare for such consultations, NGOs, including ICSU, will be invited to submit papers to WIPO by April, 1998. ICSU will have to decide on the type of document that should be submitted and whether or not it should be submitted in more than one language.

The principle areas still threatening access to data for research and education are the European Union and the United States. For the latter, the US National Academy of Sciences and many other scientific, educational, and library associations are mobilized to ensure that the interests of research and education are not overlooked.

As for the European Union, the situation is more grave. At this late date, many national members of the EU are in the process of enacting legislation to put the database directive into national law. The German law, which was just enacted, has taken a narrow approach. The Nordic countries have endorsed the application of all exceptions favoring science and education that are currently available under the Berne Convention. We thus should alert European members to sensitize their national legislatures to the need for the broadest possible range of exceptions in implementing the Directive.

The Delegation from the ICSU/CODATA ad hoc Group consisted of G. Thyagarajan, Jerome Reichman, and Ferris Webster. At the request of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the delegation also spoke to the concerns of the library community.

The Ad-hoc Group on Data and Information submitted a document setting forth its position on access to databases at the WIPO Information Meeting on Database Protection held in Geneva, September 17-19, 1997.

• The ICSU/CODATA paper in Word 6 format (90 K)
• The ICSU/CODATA paper in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format (146K)

WIPO support was minimal. They were not willing to distribute the ICSU paper (or any other NGO papers) in advance, as they did with governmental reports. At the meeting, they tolerated us putting out copies of the ICSU paper on a small table near the entry to the meeting room. About 350 copies were distributed in this way. Our three-person delegation was assigned a single seat by WIPO, which meant that the three of us had to find spots to sit in different parts of the crowded meeting room, making consultations during the course of the meeting awkward. However, the meeting itself may have been a turning point: in view of the overwhelming support for the views of the science, education, and library communities, the decision was made to include the NGOs in all future discussions and distribution of documents.

The delegation would like to acknowledge the help provided by the GCOS Project Office at the World Meteorological Organization in preparing additional copies of the ICSU paper and other logistic support.

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30 November, 2000