Intellectual property-related issues remain fundamental components of the Doha Round of negotiations, especially from the perspective of developing countries. The relationship between the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intell ectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) andthe Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD), in particular, has been identified as a critical element of any decision in Hong Kong. During in formal consultations in July, several developing countries, particularly India, Brazil, Peru and China, reaffirmed that any decision in Hong Kong should move forth with the introduction of disclosure requirements in the TRIPS Agreement toensure its support for the objectives and principles of the CBD. Moreover, in a letter to 31 trade ministers, the Indian Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr. Kamal Nath, called to amend the TRIPS Agreement to introduce these requirements, emphasizing the strong bearing of the issue on large numbers of people who are holders of traditional knowledge and are poor or disadvantaged. In addition, on June 12 – 16, 2005, the countries of the G77 and China met at the Second South Summit in Doha, Qatar, and called for “accelerating the negotiations on the development-related mandate concerning the TRIPS agreement in the Doha Ministerial Declaration, especially the amendments of the TRIPS Agreement in order for intellectual property rules to dully support the objectives of the CBD.”
The purpose of the present note is to highlight the amending the TRIPS Agreement to oblige WTO Members to require disclosure of source and country of origin of biological resources and traditional knowledge and of evidence of prior informed consent and benefit sharing under relevant national regimes in patent applications (disclosure requirements). The note will only provide a brief overview of the discussions in the Council for TRIPS to date and will address the more technical debate as to the terminology, scope, form, or consequences of non-compliance related to disclosure requirements.
Rather, it will focus on why disclosure requirements are essential not only to prevent the misappropriation, but also to ensure a development-oriented TRIPS Agreement. After this introduction, Section II will provide a brief background to the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD. Then, Section III will look at three of the reasons why disclosure requirements provide an answer to the conflicts raised by the current impact of the TRIPS Agreement on the implementation of the CBD. Finally, Section IV will provide some concluding thoughts.