World Intellectual Property Organization working towards treaty on traditional knowledge, folklore

World Intellectual Property Organization working towards treaty on traditional knowledge, folklore

Subject :IR

Section: International Organisation

Context:

• The Intergovernmental Committee of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) met in Geneva to finalize a new treaty regarding Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore.

About the Treaty:

• The treaty would make it mandatory for patent applicants to declare or disclose their use of genetic resources and any associated traditional knowledge.
• The two main aims of the new treaty are:
  • To enhance the efficacy, transparency and quality of the patent system with regard to genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge;  and
  • Prevention of patents being granted for inventions that are not novel or inventive.
• Issues in the draft treaty: It categorically excludes any provision that is already addressed by other international instruments.
  • The access and benefit-sharing and misappropriation, which are already dealt with in the CBD, the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources (GR) and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the CBD, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework, are not part of new treaty.
  • There is no comprehensive definition of ‘Traditional Knowledge’ till date.
  • Leaves out the Digital Sequence Information from its scope.
• India’s stand on this:
  • India wants researchers to disclose the exact source of the GR, instead of merely mentioning the country of origin as the draft treaty stipulates.
  • India has proposed a definition: “Traditional Knowledge associated with Genetic Resources” means any knowledge which is “evolving, generated in a traditional context, whether documented or not, collectively preserved, and transmitted from generation to generation and including but not limited to know-how, skills, innovations, practices, and learning, that are associated with GRs.”

Biopiracy of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge:

• Biopiracy refers to the practice of commercially exploiting naturally occurring biochemical or genetic material, especially by obtaining patents that restrict its future use, while failing to pay fair compensation to the community from which it originates.

Third World Network:

• TWN is an independent non-profit international research and advocacy organization involved in issues relating to development, developing countries and North-South affairs.
• TWN was formed in November 1984 in Penang, Malaysia at the concluding session of an International Conference on “The Third World: Development or Crisis?” organised by the Consumers’ Association of Penang and attended by over a hundred participants from 21 countries.
• At this conference, TWN was formed to especially strengthen cooperation among civil society groups in the South.
• Its mission is to bring about a greater articulation of the needs and rights of peoples in the South, a fair distribution of world resources, and forms of development which are ecologically sustainable and fulfill human needs.