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In the run-up to the July ministerial meeting, an unprecedented coalition of developed and developing countries proposed joint ‘draft modalities’ on three highly controversial intellectual property issues: a requirement to disclose the origin of any genetic resources involved in an invention in patent applications (disclosure); the extension of stronger protection for geographical indications to all goods (GI extension); and the establishment of a multilateral register for GIs denoting wines and spirits.
The proponents hoped to obtain a ministerial mandate to make ‘text-based negotiations’ on disclosure and GI extension part of the Doha Round ‘single undertaking’. Those negotiations would aim to amend the TRIPS Agreement so it would: (i) protect WTO Members against misappropriation of their genetic resources, and (ii) extend to all products the level of protection that GIs for wines and spirits currently enjoy.
The wines and spirits register is already part of the formal Doha Round negotiations, but the talks are lagging. The coalition called for starting text-based negotiations on this topic as well.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy warned repeatedly that the TRIPS issues should be solved before the ministerial lest they turn to a “big clash during the modalities exercise.”
That did not happen, if only because ministers never got that far. However, Norway’s trade minister Jonas Støre conducted parallel consultations with the protagonists. He suggested that work programmes be established on each topic, with the chairs delivering progress reports by mid-October. Towards the end of the Doha Round, the chairs would issue a common recommendation on how to proceed.
There is serious concern over a dilution of the coalition’s joint approach, particularly since years of separate consultations on GI extension, the disclosure of genetic resources in patent applications and the wines and spirits register have not produced any significant results so far.
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