Ratnakar Gedam, Ph.D. is a Deputy Adviser with the Planning Commission in New Delhi, India, and writes in such areas as economic reforms, management, political economy, industrial policies, liberalization, globalization, privatization, corporate restructuring.  In this article he links KM to World Trade Organization topics around issues based on Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) as well as e-Commerce and digital convergence.  The author can be reached at [email protected] and on the web at: http://www.indiabrief.com  

Knowledge Management Issues in the World Trade Organization
by Ratnakar Gedam 

KM Life Cycles 

Knowledge creation, preservation, acquisition, transfer and utilization constitute the life cycle of knowledge management. It is a continuous and costly process. Each technology has its own life cycles and so has the knowledge. Obsolete technologies, methods and instruments implicitly indicate obsolete knowledge. Discovery of new scientific facts leads to creation of state-of-the-art technology and makes obsolete the knowledge which has now become the prior-art. Just as a good managerial practice emphasizes timely replacement of obsolete technology, so it is with Knowledge Management, which aims to preserve the latest knowledge and paves a way for the timely advent of new knowledge in the form of new products and processes. 

Thus Knowledge Management plays an important role in shaping transition and its pace, which in turn creates the preconditions for diffusion, acceptance and assimilation of new knowledge into the society. Obsolescent Knowledge is synonymous with technological obsolescent. Knowledge is manifested in technology. Technology is embodied in the capital goods, instruments, process and products. Products and services are traded; therefore knowledge is traded and forms a part of commerce.  

The Need to Protect Intellectual Property Rights 

The need to protect the rights of an individual responsible for generation of novel and unknown ideas and converting those ideas into useful products or process was felt long ago. Several nations were signatories to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property of March 20, 1883. Since, then there were numerous international Conventions on legal protections to IPRs--Intellectual Property Rights. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) monitors at least 30 such international Conventions / Treaties.  

Intellectual Property Rights offer exclusive rights to the new and original inventors. Thus a country with higher patents and other IPRs to its inventory will have the higher potential of accumulating the wealth. Capability to translate patents into useful products and process requires both Knowledge and huge funds.  Removal of barriers to investment, trade, services on one hand and enforcing uniform code of IPR laws is a first step of successful strategy to make a practice of universal Knowledge Management.  

World Trade Organization and the Knowledge Revolution  

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is a rules-based, member-driven organization. Over 136 member governments make the decisions by negative consensus. Signatory members agree for specific obligations and bindings for shaping domestic policies, rules and laws to suit international communities. Agreements are legal text and source for "international public law," which eventually makes obligatory to reframe or modify their existing laws to suit international trade through "private contract law."  

Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) was concomitant with the Knowledge Revolution. The Multilateral Trade Agreements under WTO regime needs to be viewed as a second successful strategic step of Knowledge Management. WTO creates obligations and commitments on signatory members arising out of WTO Agreements. With this, new instruments of Knowledge Management have paved their way in. The post-second World War-II mechanisms and concepts concerning transfer of technologies, process "know-how," "compulsory licensing" etc. have outlived their usefulness. Likewise, "legal systems" concerning the resolution of disputes between nations in many countries have also been out-lived.  An Agreement was signed between the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (concluded in Geneva on December 22, 1995) to protect IPRs and implement Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPs under the WTO's supervision. This could be termed as third successful strategic step of the Knowledge Management. 

Agreement on TRIPs is the real evidence of Knowledge Management. TRIPs Agreements have created huge controversy too. Intellectual property rights (IPRs) determine the capability of a nation to produce industrial technologies. Apprehension about the possibility of infringement of IPRs is obvious when Knowledge-based goods and services originated in one country are traded into the territories of other country. TRIPs agreements have dealt with terms for IPRs and patentability of new and novel products and processes. In this age of knowledge revolution,  scientists are able to create transgenic seeds, genetically modified (GM) foods, hormones manipulation, develop human organs, clone animals etc. Patents are being sought in numerous countries. Some countries have agreed to grant  patents to these products and processes; some have not. 

Knowledge Pushes the Frontiers and Leads to Agreements 

The reality is that knowledge was able to create frontiers in numerous areas. The TRIPS agreement covers the terms for IPRs.  These are, namely: Copyright and related rights, Trademarks, including service marks, Geographical indications, Industrial designs, Patents, Layout Designs (topographies) of integrated circuits, Undisclosed information, including trade secrets. 

Before the WTO was created, some international agreements protecting intellectual property already existed.  The Paris Convention, for instance, was designed  for the Protection of Industrial Property (patents, industrial designs, etc). The Berne Convention was created for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (copyright). The Paris agreement says patent protection must be available for inventions for at least 20 years. Patent protection must be available for both products and processes, in almost all fields of technology. Governments can refuse to issue a patent for an invention if its commercial exploitation is prohibited for reasons of public order or morality. The exclusion is permitted for diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods, plants and animals (other than microorganisms), and biological processes for the production of plants or animals (other than microbiological processes). 

Plant varieties, however, must be protectable by patents or by a special system (such as the breeder’s rights provided in the conventions of UPOV — the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants).  The Multinational Companies are in the forefront of research in the new areas as they see huge profitability and income from new knowledge base. Estimated income in 1997 out of sales of transgenic seeds like, wheat, maize, oilseeds etc. exceeds 4-5 billions of dollars each. The MNCs who have such a knowledge and technology includes: Grupo Aventis (France), Novartis (Switzerland), Monsanto (US), Zeneca/Astra (United Kingdom), DuPont (US), Bayer (Germany), Dow AgroSciences (US), American Home Products (US),  BASF (Germany), and  Sumitomo (Japan). This entire move is due to the success of Knowledge Management strategies. 

Knowledge Pushes Electronic Boundaries 

Advancement of knowledge in the field of electronics has gifted the computers and their application in numerous areas. The internet, intranet and extranet networks have revolutionized not only the methods of computation, but scope of usage of computer. Digital televisions and world-wide-web and internet access through cable network have changed the concept of TV, computers etc. 

Voice-over internet, videos and TV channel transmission though internet and cellular phones capable of sending fax and emails have changed the concept of communication. Digital technology has revolutionized the "information", "communication" and "entertainment". Convergence through digital technology has changed the definition, scope and application of electronic products used for storing and retrieving data, communication and entertainment. Electronic commerce is another novel and new area, which shows the advancement in Knowledge Management. It has revolutionized the concept of doing the business and commerce. The legally acceptable "private contract" can now  be signed and "enforced" though the process of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). To monitor healthy growth and promote commerce of knowledge-based products Cyber laws, unknown in the history of mankind, have been framed by several countries.  Digital signatures have helped resolves issue concerning legality of evidence before law. 

To conclude, WTO has helped foster knowledge and its utility to mankind and thus demonstrated highest capability of Knowledge Management at the global level.