See IP Watch article for the article and a comment, announcing an unsollicited initiative on Global Patent Pools.
Additional relevant background is in Francis Gurry's acceptance speech to the WIPO General Assembly on his appointment as Director General (September 22, 2008), and in the recent Policy Forum article published in Science: Brian Walker, Scott Barrett, Stephen Polasky, Victor Galaz, Carl Folke, Gustav Engstrom, Frank Ackerman, Ken Arrow, Stephen Carpenter, Kanchan Chopra, Gretchen Daily, Paul Ehrlich, Terry Hughes, Nils Kautsky, Simon Levin, Karl-Goran Maler, Jason Shogren, Jeff Vincent, Tasos Xepapadeas, and Aart de Zeeuw. Looming global-scale failures and missing institutions. Science, 325(5946):1345-1346, September 2009.