14th April 2006
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES PROPOSE DISCLOSURE AT WIPO PATENT MEETING
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A group of developing countries proposed at a 10-12 April informal meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) that the SCP should take into account disclosure of origin of genetic resources and other biodiversity-related issues when considering harmonising global patent laws. The SCP was meeting to prepare its work programme, which would include a Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) that aims to standardize and harmonise the patent rules used around the world. In perhaps the most new and interesting part of the discussions, on 10 April India proposed that the SCP hold joint meetings with the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC), a committee whose work on genetic resources is supported by developing countries. Similarly, the “Friends of Development” on 11 April said they would like the SCP harmonisation to include disclosure of origin, prior informed consent (PIC) and benefit-sharing, exclusions from patentability (eg. for life forms like plants and animals) and effective mechanisms to challenge the validity of patents. Disclosure, PIC, benefit-sharing and patent challenges have been discussed in the context of the relationship between the WTO Agreement on Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in the TRIPS Council (see ,Bridges Trade BioRes 17 March 2006), and in the context of an international regime on access and benefit sharing at the CBD . Provisions in the SPLT that clarified what types of living organisms are excluded from patentability could have substantial effects on biotechnology research and crops, along with the intellectual property protection required for plant varieties. However, the US and Japan disagreed that these issues should be on the SCP agenda, saying that instead the focus should be on definition of prior art, grace period, novelty and inventive step. The SCP was unable to agree on its work meeting, leading to the cancellation of the committee’s meeting scheduled for later this year.
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