Reactions To Treaty On Plant Genetic Resources For Food And Agriculture
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) has been the subject of various comments this week.
Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) has been the subject of various comments this week.
After three days of stocktaking, members of the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on genetic resources and traditional knowledge were unable to agree on a recommendation on the future work of the committee to the September WIPO General Assembly. Instead, a report will be transmitted to the Assembly with the expectation that this high level committee will reach agreement.
World Intellectual Property Organization committee members have laid out options for establishing an instrument or instruments to protect genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore. Now they are working to choose among them.
World Intellectual Property Organization committee members will decide by tomorrow whether to recommend WIPO move to final high-level negotiations on the protection of genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore.
A new report from the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) proposes solutions to advancing the global debate on the protection of traditional knowledge shared among different indigenous communities.
Negotiators at the World Intellectual Property Organization this week are struggling to make headway on a draft text of an international instrument for the protection of traditional cultural expressions, or folklore. And accusations began to fly that certain developed countries are not engaging in good faith to move negotiations along.
The Internal Audit and Oversight Division (IAOD) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is conducting an evaluation of the service provided by the WIPO secretariat in support of the committee on traditional knowledge and related issues.
Small-scale farmers and their role in food security are a “missing element” in the draft articles being reviewed at this week’s negotiations at WIPO, according to a briefing paper issued by the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO).
Members of the World Intellectual Property Organization this week are attempting to advance 13-year-old negotiations on the protection of traditional cultural expressions (folklore) to a point where they can enter final high-level treaty negotiations. But some developed countries are putting up resistance to any instrument that would be legally binding, saying that it is “premature,” which could change the outcome of the negotiations.
World Intellectual Property Organization members are nearing conclusion of negotiations for an international instrument or instruments on issues critical to indigenous peoples, such as protection of traditional indigenous knowledge, practices and genetic resources. But the WIPO membership as a whole has been miserly when it comes to funding indigenous peoples’ participation in the process, and now many are in danger of being left out of the process.