WIPO to expand study into defences and client-attorney privilege

A press release from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announces that the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) agreed last week on a range of work items. Delegations from 103 countries, 10 international organizations and 28 non-governmental organizations participated in the Committee. The interesting part of the press release, for PatLit readers, is this:

"The Committee reaffirmed that the non-exhaustive list of issues identified at its June 2008 meeting would remain open for further elaboration and discussion at its next session scheduled for November 9 to 13, 2009. ...

SCP members agreed that the four preliminary studies on standards and patents, exclusions from patentable subject matter and exceptions and limitations to the rights, the client-attorney privilege and dissemination of patent information which had been the subject of the week’s discussions, would remain open for further comments at its next meeting. In summarizing the work of the Committee, the Chair said that the SCP agreed to ask the Secretariat to:

(a) commission external experts to prepare a study on exclusions, exceptions and limitations focused on, but not limited to, issues suggested by members, such as public health, education, research and experimentation and patentability of life forms, including from a public policy, socio-economic developmental perspective bearing in mind the level of economic development;

(b) ...

(c) expand the preliminary study on the client-attorney privilege to reflect the current state of play taking into account the perspective of various stakeholders and using external experts, if necessary; and

(d) ...

It was also agreed that the Secretariat would present the studies to Member States at the beginning of the SCP’s November 2009 session.

...".

The Chair’s summary of the meeting is available here

If any PatLit reader has the time and the inclination to read and summarise either the client-attorney privilege study or the defences and exceptions study in order to prepare a note for this weblog, can he or she please email me here?