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After a week of technical discussions to elaborate a draft text designed to help the World Intellectual Property Organization member states reach a treaty text on the protection of traditional knowledge, experts provided a set of draft articles, comments and proposed amendments.
Experts gathered at the World Intellectual Property Organization to produce a negotiating document on traditional knowledge produced a cleaner text yesterday.
After two days of broad analysis of a draft document on traditional knowledge, country experts were to convene today in small drafting groups to trim down the language and arrive at a treaty negotiating text for the delegates meeting at the World Intellectual Property Organization in May.
A group of country experts are gathered at the World Intellectual Property Organization this week to elaborate a draft text on intellectual property and traditional knowledge. The positive momentum set by the results obtained by experts on traditional cultural expressions last July paved the way for this week’s agenda.
PARIS – Récemment adopté, l’accord international pour faciliter l’accès aux ressources génétiques et le partage équitable des ressources en découlant a été ouvert à la ratification la semaine dernière. Le texte a d’ores et déjà reçu des commentaires mitigés des parties prenantes.
PARIS - The recently agreed international instrument to facilitate access to genetic resources and the equitable sharing of benefits accrued from those resources opened for signature last week, and the text is already getting mixed reviews from stakeholders.
Incorporating traditional cultural expressions into an intellectual property system will be an uphill battle, warned a panellist at a recent side event at the World Intellectual Property Organization. But, argued another, it could be one of the best ways for indigenous communities to benefit from their knowledge.
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Delegates negotiating early stages of a treaty on traditional cultural expressions this week got down to details of what to protect, from whom and how in late-night drafting sessions at the World Intellectual Property Organization, and found a work plan for the immediate future on genetic resources as well. Meanwhile, indigenous groups continued to raise concerns about the process.
In the Caribbean, issues of traditional knowledge in intellectual property are hardly considered to be of special significance to the majority of policymakers and, except for a few pockets of interest groups such as a group of Rastafarians in Jamaica, the average citizen is uninformed on the subject. The protection of the cultural heritage of the region through a normative system of law is exceedingly necessary for the survival of our unique brand of cultural expression, writes Abiola Inniss.