The IP Negotiations Monitor summarizes the latest developments in multilateral and regional fora where intellectual property negotiations are taking place, and informs on upcoming meetings and events.
(Covering period: January – March 2018)
Resistance to Antibiotics: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
State of discussion on AMR action, two years after the WHA Global Plan
This update provides a snapshot of the activities of the Development, Innovation and Intellectual Property Programme during the month of July 2017.
Implementing Farmers’ Rights Relating to Seeds
The concept of Farmers’ Rights recognized the role of farmers as custodians of biodiversity and helped to draw attention to the need to preserve practices that are essential for sustainable agriculture. This paper examines one particular aspect of such rights, perhaps the most controversial. It deals with the component of farmers’ rights referring to the use, exchange and sale of farm-saved seeds. Although that concept was initially introduced in 1989 with the aim of balancing the rights of farmers as breeders and of commercial plant breeders, a specific reference to the rights relating to seeds was only introduced upon the conclusion of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) in 2001.
Title: Taking Stock of Global Developments on ABS and Intellectual Property
Date: 15 December 2016, 18:15
Venue: Youth Group Meeting Room, Sunrise Building, Second Floor
Organizer: The South Centre
Title: The South Centre-FAO Memorandum of Understanding Signing
Date: 11 November 2016
Venue: Marrakech
Organizer: The South Centre, FAO
Title: Panel Discussion on “Designing Sui Generis Plant Variety Protection System in Developing
Countries and the Role of WIPO”
Date: 7 October 2016, 13:00-15:00
Venue: WIPO New Building, Room 0.107
Organizer: The South Centre, The Third World Network (TWN) and and the Association for Plant
Breeding for Benefit of Society (APBREBES)
About the book: A study prepared for the UN FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) on whether, and how, national and regional laws, guidelines and other arrangements on access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing (ABS) may impact upon agriculture and food security.
Authors: Gurdial Singh Nijar, Gan Pei Fern, Lee Yin Harn and Chan Hui Yun
The Nagoya Protocol: Main Characteristics, Challenges and Opportunities
The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity entered into force in October 2014. Its provisions clearly reflect the need for countries to set up access and benefit sharing rules and procedures for the Protocol’s implementation at the national level. (more…)
Towards a More Coherent International Legal System on Farmers’ Rights: The Relationship of the FAO ITPGRFA, UPOV and WIPO
This Policy Brief outlines some key areas of interrelation among the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). (more…)
The Development Dimension of the Agriculture Negotiations.
In view of the role of agriculture in the social and economic development of developing countries and their experience implementing rules and liberalization commitments related to agricultural trade, the need to redefine the boundaries of the development dimension in multilateral rules governing agricultural trade has emerged. (more…)
