[x-pubpol] UN defies own sanctions against Iran by sending computer gear

[Joly MacFie]

[Cyrus Farivar pulls yet another rabbit out of his hat! ]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/un-defies-own-sanctions-against-iran-by-sending-computer-gear/

UN defies own sanctions against Iran by sending computer gear
The US is now investigating this possible WIPO headscratcher.

by Cyrus Farivar - July 5 2012, 12:05pm EDT

It’s no secret that American sanctions against Iran aren’t bulletproof
(just ask all the iPhone vendors in Tehran). So yes, there are United
Nations sanctions prohibiting sales of certain material to the Islamic
Republic, but surprise—some other stuff is getting through.

Bloomberg now reports the US is looking into the UN’s World
Intellectual Property Organization’s activities in Iran. Apparently,
the WIPO has sent a “shipment of information-technology equipment to
Iran that was received by August 2010.” The news agency cited
confidential documents that it had seen, provided by a WIPO employee
who was not authorized to disclose them.

For years, WIPO has been under mandate to help developing countries
modernize their patent systems. The organization has been sending
computer gear to other countries, most notably North Korea.

Earlier this year, WIPO attempted to give computers to North Korea as
a way to help it better enforce intellectual property regimes. That
gear included printers, computers, servers, and firewall hardware,
among other devices.

As TechDirt aptly put it at the time: “Of course, as plenty of people
outside the IP-maximalist bubble realize, North Korea doesn't give a
damn about foreign patent and trademark applications. The country is
actually well-known for being a key source of counterfeiting.”

In the case of Iran, though, legal scholars seem to be a bit mystified
as to how one UN agency, WIPO, seems to be brazenly disobeying its own
international sanctions.

“This is politically very embarrassing,” Matthew Parish, a lawyer with
Holman Fenwick Willan LLP in Geneva, told Bloomberg. “Businesses and
other international organizations are increasingly avoiding all
contact with Iran, and it seems astonishing that WIPO does not feel
obliged to follow the same principles.”

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