Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 9 • 13th May 2005

WIPO Seminar Looks at Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge

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The relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs), biodiversity and traditional knowledge (TK) — and the role of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in enhancing this relationship — were discussed by representatives from governments, civil society and the private sector at a session on biodiversity and TK, co-organised by WIPO as part of the International Seminar on Intellectual Property and Development from 2-3 May. The need to fully involve holders of TK in the process of shaping IP regimes, for WIPO to assume a more development-oriented strategy, and for greater cooperation between WIPO and other UN agencies were suggested as ways for WIPO to support traditional knowledge. Graham Dutfield of the University of London suggested that WIPO’s concern with financial incentives as a means to encourage innovation was less applicable to TK holders because their knowledge was not translatable into market values. He stressed that “any legal system of protection of traditional knowledge must accommodate the ‘holistic nature’ of traditional knowledge”, alluding to traditional systems of IP protection that need to be recognised by the international community. Participants focused largely on traditional knowledge while recognising that its protection would aid in the conservation of biodiversity. Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), said there should be better integration amongst the international organisations working on intellectual property and development, pointing to repeated rejection of requests from the CBD for observer status at the Council for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) as indicative of the resistance of international organisations to incorporate biodiversity concerns as a core value.

The session was one of six topics discussed at the International Seminar, co-organised by WIPO, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the WTO. The Seminar was part of a set of initiatives to move forward the discussions on a ‘development agenda’ in WIPO, initiated by the last WIPO General Assembly in response to a September 2004 proposal by fourteen developing countries for the ‘Establishment of a Development Agenda for WIPO’ (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 8 October 2004).

ICTSD reporting.