UN countries adopt treaty to better trace origins of genetic resources under global patent system
GENEVA — UN member states signed a new treaty on Friday to ensure that genetic resources used in inventions, such as new medicines derived from exotic plants in the Andes, are properly traced.
It is the first time that the 193 member states of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization have agreed that patent applicants must disclose the origins of genetic resources used and associated traditional knowledge – often from indigenous cultures that have long been exploited by settlers, traders and others.
For example, the treaty will require companies in sectors such as fashion, luxury goods and pharmaceuticals to specify the origin of the plant-based chemicals in medicines or skin creams they use for their innovative products. About 30 countries already have similar rules in their national books.
The treaty does not address the thornier issue of compensating indigenous communities for their historic – even ancient – expertise on things like tropical plants.
But the agreement is seen as an important first international step. It requires patent applicants, such as foreign entrepreneurs or international companies, to specify where they get ideas about what goes into their products.
Daren Tang, the organization’s director general, hailed a “historic” achievement — the first WIPO treaty in more than a decade — and said delegates at a final conference last two weeks “transcended the categories of North and South ‘.
“For the first time, systems of knowledge and wisdom that have supported economies, societies and cultures for centuries have now been incorporated into the global IP system,” Tang told attendees. “For the first time, the connection between indigenous peoples, local communities and their genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge are being recognized by the global IP community.”
The WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, reached by consensus after more than two decades in the making, will enter into force as international law after 15 countries adopt it.
The agreement focuses on genetic resources such as medicinal plants, farm crops and some animal breeds. It is not retroactive, meaning it only applies to future discoveries, not past discoveries.
WIPO rules do not allow protection of the intellectual property of natural or genetic resources themselves, but they do help protect inventions – by humans – that put these resources to work for humanity, both historically and recently.