Category Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous Groups Allege Canadian Obstructionism To Biodiversity ABS Protocol

NAGOYA, JAPAN - With the clock ticking and less than a day to go before a draft of a legally binding instrument to prevent biopiracy is due to be presented to the assembly of a major United Nations meeting on biodiversity, delegations kept trying to find acceptable language, with different echoes coming from the negotiating room. Meanwhile, Canadian indigenous people convened a press briefing today (21 October) to charge that Canada was trying to block the negotiations and deny their human rights.

Stakeholders Restless About Biodiversity Benefit Sharing Protocol

NAGOYA, JAPAN - Negotiations on a legal international instrument to prevent biopiracy and ensure that resource holders are compensated on Thursday continued to demand the attention of delegates in the closed-door discussions here. Meanwhile, civil society argued that the Convention on Biological Diversity is at a critical point while a research institute provided a model agreement for providers and users of genetic resources.

NGOs: Biopiracy Ongoing As Governments Slowly Negotiate International Instrument

NAGOYA, JAPAN - Discussions on a draft protocol to prevent biopiracy were intense again on Wednesday, with night sessions going late as delegation try to find common language on a legally binding instrument. Around the discussions, undertaken mostly behind closed doors, side events convened by civil society are warning about numerous cases of biopiracy, and the urgent need for a meaningful protocol.

Copyright Industry Makes Pitch For Economic Benefit Of Anti-Piracy In Developing Countries

Copyright law is not always a barrier to access to knowledge, but lack of adequate or predicable copyright enforcement in developing countries can prevent the evolution of their own local creative industries, said several representatives from such industries yesterday.

Delegates See UN Protocol Against Biopiracy Within Reach

NAGOYA, JAPAN - Prospects for completing and approving a protocol protecting natural resources from biopiracy and providing equitable sharing of benefits derived from the commercial use of those resources are promising, according to delegates. But hard negotiations lie ahead if they are to meet a deadline to present an agreed draft protocol to the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by the end of this week.

As Negotiators Launch Talks On Biodiversity, Industry Requests IP Protection

This week, global attention will be focussed on hopes to reach an international agreement aimed at giving the world a better chance to reduce the loss of biodiversity and ensure benefits are being shared. Intellectual Property Watch will be in Nagoya, Japan to report on the negotiations.

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A Rights-Poor Protocol For Biodiversity Access & Benefit-Sharing

A leading indigenous negotiator for a UN protocol on biodiversity access and benefit sharing says the process will likely yield a highly diluted, rights-poor protocol and that Indigenous Peoples' negotiating leverage is slipping.

WIPO Assembly Considers Paths For Possible New Treaties

Member governments of the World Intellectual Property Organization this week set in motion negotiations that could lead to international treaties or other instruments on exceptions and limitations to copyright, the protection of traditional knowledge and folklore, and harmonisation of industrial design laws. Negotiations won’t be without difficulty, however.

Burdened With Brackets, Biodiversity ABS Protocol Needs Political Will To Survive

Substantive progress eluded the negotiators of a draft protocol on biodiversity access and benefit sharing last week in Montreal, according to participating sources. The third attempt at finding consensus on key aspects of the text was unsuccessful and negotiations will carry on at the major United Nations meeting on biodiversity next month in Japan.