The Union for the Public Domain has received a $25,000 grant from the Open Society Foundation to support civil society travel to negotiating meetings of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). For details, contact the administrator of the travel fund, Krista Cox.

The following statement was delivered by Shyamkrishna Balganesh on behalf of the UPD, at the WIPO IIM-3

Thank you, Mr. Chairman for the opportunity to take the floor at this meeting.

The Union for the Public Domain (UPD) is an international civil society organization that works for the promotion and enhancement of the public domain. We continue to believe that the matters being discussed at this meeting will be of lasting significance for the future of technology and economic development in the developing world.

UPD played an important role in the 1996 WIPO diplomatic conference, particularly as regards the UPD opposition to a treaty for sui generis protection of databases. Here are the web pages from that 1996 negotiation: http://public-domain.org/oldwww