Policy Brief 11, September 2007
Mandatory Disclosure of the Source and Origin of Biological Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge under the TRIPS Agreement.
The discussion on TRIPS and CBD in the WTO demonstrates the growing convergence on content, scope, relevance and effectiveness of an international mandatory obligation on disclosure of source and country providing biological resources and traditional knowledge.
Remaining divergences focus on the substantive and procedural functions of the disclosure requirement and in particular, the legal consequences on the processing, granting and validity of a patent. The availability of discretionary power for national administrative and judicial authorities to revoke a patent for non-compliance with the disclosure requirement would be important in the absence of an alternative effective mechanism for its enforcement.
This article was tagged: Biodiversity, Intellectual Property, Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Patent, Traditional Knowledge, TRIPS, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Trade Organization (WTO)
