Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 2 • Number 17 • 7th November 2002

CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS SCRUTINISE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROVISIONS IN FTAA TEXT

Do More

Subscribe to the BioRes

* Required Field

Email Address: *

Country: *
Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua And Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas, The Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, Democractic Republic of the Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Croatia (Hrvatska) Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Islands Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia, The Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong S.A.R. Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea Korea, North Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau S.A.R. Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, The New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua new Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Island Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts And Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent And The Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia And The South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard And Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad And Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks And Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States United States Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State (Holy See) Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands (British) Virgin Islands (US) Wallis And Futuna Islands Yemen Yugoslavia Zambia Zimbabwe

Employment Sector (Academia, Govt., Private Sector, NGO, IGO): *

First Name:

Last Name:

Organisation:

Enter the letters shown above:*

Download this issue

See also

CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS SCRUTINISE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROVISIONS IN FTAA TEXT

A wide range of civil society representatives met on 29-30 October in Quito, Ecuador, for a stakeholder forum entitled "Towards Civil Society Participation in the Americas" to discuss the content and the process of the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The intellectual property chapter in the FTAA text — one of the most controversial issues in the negotiations and in discussions among civil society groups — was among issues discussed at the forum, where participants adopted a strong set of recommendations urging countries to take greater account of development needs and public concerns.

The meeting took place prior to the FTAA Ministerial meeting on 1 November which provided an opportunity for Ministers of the western hemisphere to receive the preliminary drafts of the nine negotiating groups and review progress in the FTAA negotiations so as to establish guidelines for the next phase of these negotiations.

Civil society groups highlight deficiencies of IPR chapter

Forum participants regarded the intellectual property chapter of the FTAA as the most ambitious and diverse draft agreement on intellectual property rights (IPRs) ever assembled. Many pointed out that the development dimension and public concerns found little mention in the draft, resulting in an imbalanced text for developing countries of the hemisphere and dissatisfaction among civil society groups. According to the civil society groups’ final recommendations to Ministers, any chapter on IPRs in the FTAA text would only make sense if issues like genetic resources, traditional knowledge, technology transfer, flexibility in plant variety protection, and competition regulations were included and fully developed. Some even considered that the FTAA should not deal with IPR issues at all, but that they should be left to discussions and negotiations at the multilateral level where more balanced results could likely be obtained.

Access to genetic resources and traditional knowledge

Despite these criticisms, participants also acknowledged some positive steps in the draft chapter, namely the incorporation of issues related to the relationship between IPRs and genetic resources and the protection of traditional knowledge for the first time. However, in the recommendations to Ministers, participants called for defensive mechanisms to also be incorporated in the IPR chapter, including "legal certification of access and prior informed consent as substantive conditions for the concession of such rights" and the possibility of revoking of patens obtained in breach of such requirements.

Regarding traditional knowledge, participants recognised the importance of this knowledge to cultural, economic and environmental activities and the right of traditional communities to decide about their own knowledge. Accordingly, recommendations were presented to also incorporate defensive mechanisms in the intellectual property filing process and an obligation to establish national sui generis systems to protect traditional knowledge in the IPR chapter of the FTAA.

The incorporation of these two new issues in the draft IPR chapter are relevant to the agenda of the new programme of the WTO and the work of the Intergovernmental Committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization. In particular, discussions are currently underway in the WTO Council for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) regarding traditional knowledge, biodiversity and exceptions to patentability (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 26 September 2002), as mandated by the Doha Ministerial Declaration. WIPO has continued its work on IPR clauses in access contracts and discussions on possible defensive and positive measures to protect traditional knowledge (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 27 June 2002). The merit of the FTAA chapter on intellectual property rights is not only the inclusion of these issues in a potential regional agreement but to textually reflect the proposals of developing countries on these matters.

The civil society forum was organised by the Centro Ecuatoriano de Derecho Ambiental (CEDA) and Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano (FFLA) and attended by a wide range of civil society groups including WWF, IUCN, CIEL, IISD, Carnegie Endowment, WRI, NSC, FIDA, IDPA, RIDES and SPDA.

Background

The FTAA process started with the Ministerial Declaration of Denver of 1995, which mandates negotiations for a Free Trade Area in the Americas. This negotiating process seeks to eliminate trade and investment barriers in the hemisphere by finalising a comprehensive free Trade Agreement by 2005. The process covers various trade-related issues including: market access (industrial goods and agriculture), antidumping, subsidies, investment, services, intellectual property, government procurement, competition policy, e-commerce and dispute settlement.

The draft FTAA text is available at http://www.ftaa-alca.org.

ICTSD reporting.