The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Would Like To Know What You Think Of Them (Sorta)

Say That Again

from the but-mainly-if-you-think-ip-is-awesome dept

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has a pretty long history of basically being the leading supporter of ever stricter and more ridiculous copyright (and patent and trademark laws). To be fair, in recent years, WIPO has actually been somewhat more open to at least hearing from folks actually representing the public, who have pointed out that stronger IP laws often do much more harm than good for wider society. But, on the whole, the group is still very much representing the interests of copyright, patent and trademark holders, rather than the general public. It’s why the group gets called out for crazy ideas like making service providers into IP cops and suggesting that things would have been better if the web had been patented.

Either way, it appears that WIPO has hired a company to reach out to get “Stakeholder Perceptions of WIPO.” It’s pretty rare that WIPO actually hears from the public that its efforts and agreements really impact, so here’s a chance to make sure WIPO knows what you think of its efforts to expand IP law over the years… Have at it, and let them know your thoughts.

Unfortunately, many of the questions are kind of ridiculous in the “and when did you stop beating your wife” variety. For example, at one point they ask you to “rank” how important specific WIPO priorities are — and looking down the list, I though pretty much all of them should not be priorities, because all of them focused on expanding IP, rather than looking at more effective IP, or even exploring where IP might hurt the public. There are a few other questions like that as well, where I wanted to challenge the nature of the question itself, but was forced to choose the “least bad” or “least incorrect” answer instead. Still, there were a few opportunities to make it clear to WIPO that you’d prefer the organization not just be a representative to expand IP at all costs, but one that should pay attention to what actually helps society the most — even if that means cutting back on some IP rules — something that seems to be completely foreign to WIPO’s world view so far.

It’s really unfortunate that WIPO would stack the questions so badly such that the only thing you can really say for most of them is just how awesome IP is and how much better it would be if IP expanded. But hopefully some of you will figure out ways to make it clear to WIPO that perhaps it should be focusing on making sure the public benefits, not just how to expand IP.

Filed Under: intellectual property, survey, wipo