The 26th session of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was held from July 26 to 30, this year, in Geneva, Switzerland. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the committee’s work was conducted in a hybrid format with a limited number of participants at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva and with a large participation through the virtual platform Interprefy. The session was chaired by Mrs. Ana Patricia Benedetti Zelaya, Ambassador of El Salvador, who chaired the remote meetings.

In his opening speech, WIPO Director General Daren Tang welcomed Member States’ interest in the activity of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property and their commitment to projects initiated and implemented in the context of the WIPO Development Agenda.

Mr. Tang also noted that the Committee’s own pioneering spirit, which has generated a multitude of impact projects for the organization and its Member States, is helping to turn intellectual property (IP) into an important tool in supporting sustainable and inclusive development.

The status of ongoing projects was presented by the WIPO Secretariat in the Progress Report on the Implementation of the Development Agenda, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on project implementation, and the proposed alternative activities for their successful completion. Thus, the following projects were discussed in the Committee:

1. Increasing the Role of Women in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Encouraging Women in Developing Countries to Use the Intellectual Property System;
2. Registration of the Collective Marks of Local Enterprises as a Cross-Cutting Economic Development Issue;
3. Tools for Successful DA Project Proposals;
4. Project on Enhancing the Use of Intellectual Property for Mobile Apps in the Software Sector;
5. Intellectual property and Gastronomic Tourism in Peru and Other Developing Countries: Promoting the Development of Gastronomic Tourism through Intellectual Property;
6. Pilot Project on Copyright and the Distribution of Content in the Digital Environment;
7. Development of the Music Sector and New Economic Models of Music in Burkina Faso and in Certain Countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union.

Subsequently, Member States noted WIPO’s Contribution to the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the status of implementation of the 45 WIPO DA recommendations. New project proposals focused on current issues were examined and agreed upon, including those related to expanding the role of IP in the development of the creative economy, women and IP, empowering SMEs to use the geographical indications system to promote domestic products and other major projects for the least developed countries, the developing ones, and also the countries with emerging or transition economies. The Republic of Moldova, together with other states in the Regional Group of Central, Eastern European Countries and the Baltic States, supported the projects proposed for implementation, especially those aimed at exploiting IP for economic development and supporting innovative and creative entrepreneurship.

The Republic of Moldova was represented at the 26th session of the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property by Liliana Vieru, Head of the Communication and International Relations Department of AGEPI, who participated in the Committee meeting through the Interprefy platform.

More information on the projects discussed at the current session of the Committee, as well as the full view of the session meetings, is available on the WIPO website at: https://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id= 62168.