Intellectual property rights

This action guide is the culmination of a four-year IUCN project on the convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the international trade regime. The point of departure for the project was the assumption that both the CBD and the World Trade Organization (WTO) represent regimes whose successful implementation is necessary in order to achieve sustainable development.

The commitment of the international community to ensure an equitable supply of food and nutrition to everyone on Earth has been reiterated many times. However, there are very few practical examples on how such equity and benefit sharing principles are to be put into practice. The proceedings of this workshop held in February 1998 relate experiences and lessons from a South-South perspective and critically address the translation of recommendations from this workshop into actions.

This paper addresses the environmental and developmental impacts of patent protection by specifically focusing on the global agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). While the TRIPS agreement serves as an important step in harmonizing international intellectual property systems, the author contends that it currently fails to properly balance public and private interests, especially in the gap between rich and poor.

This pamphlet analyses how the aims of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and its provision for intellectual property rights (IPRs), interact with international trade rules, particularly in the issues of seeds and plant varieties

Plant genetic resources are crucial for world agriculture, food security and the global economy. They are vital for the pharmaceutical industry and are important assests for developing countries rich in biodiversity. The patents and intellectual property rights (IPRs) associated with the development of new products are critical to trade in these resources.

The primary goal is to highlight some of the principles which should be considered by planners, legislative drafters and policy-makers as they work to develop legal frameworks on access to genetic resources in their countries. Contextual information on the Convention on Biological Diversity and examples of how countries have approached the issue to date are provided

For centuries, genetic resources not protected by Intellectual Property Rights were collected and used without any regulation. They were a free good available for everyone. Huge profits were made but never shared with the custodians of biological diversity. "Access to genetic resources" underscores the importance of informed national approaches to enforce access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing provisions of the Convention on biological diversity.

Adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the Convention on biological diversity has now been ratified by over 160 countries and forms the backbone of many of the biodiversity activities that have taken place over the last five years. However, despite the unprecedented success of this major international convention, many questions still remain unanswered and many uncertainties prevail.

Today, there is increasing recognition that traditional and indigenous knowledge systems can provide alternative strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, a realisation that is strongly reflected in the Convention on biological diversity. However, there is a fear that this interest in traditional knowledge systems will lead to the basic human, cultural and scientific rights of indigenous people being sidelined, something the CBD fails to address adequately.