Category WIPO

Intellectual Property: A Means To An Access And Benefit-Sharing End?

By Kaitlin Mara
Intellectual property is a useful leveraging tool for developing countries eager to see the creation of a global access and benefit-sharing regime on genetic resource use, said a recent panel on biodiversity protections in international law.

"Benefit-sharing was viewed as an integral part of the main bargain between developed and developing countries" when the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was first formed, said Timothy Hodges, a Canadian official who co-chairs an access and benefit-sharing working group under the CBD.

WIPO Development Committee Makes Careful Progress On Implementation

By William New Members of the new World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) this week are negotiating implementation of agreed changes to WIPO practices intended to ensure they are development-friendly. Perhaps predictably, countries with the…