GENEVA (AP) — U.N. member countries on Friday concluded a new treaty to help ensure that traditional knowledge about genetic resources, such as medicines derived from exotic plants in the Andes mountains, is properly tracked.
It marks the first time that the 193 member states of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization have reached an agreement on patent protection over historical knowledge of indigenous cultures, which have long been exploited by settlers, traders and others.
The treaty does not address compensation to indigenous communities for their historical experience with products extracted from tropical plants.
But the agreement is seen as an important first step. It requires patent applicants, such as foreign entrepreneurs or international companies, to specify where they obtained ideas about what goes into their products, especially inputs drawn from the knowledge of indigenous or local peoples.
Daren Tang, the organization’s director general, said the agreement shows that “multilateralism is alive and well at WIPO.”
“Today we made history in so many ways,” he said. “Through this, we are showing that the IP system can continue to encourage innovation while evolving in a more inclusive way, responding to the needs of all countries and their communities.”
The WIPO treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, reached by consensus after more than two decades of preparation, will enter into force as international law after 15 countries adopt it.
The agreement focuses on genetic resources such as medicinal plants, agricultural crops and some animal breeds. It will not be retroactive, meaning it will only apply to future discoveries, not past discoveries.
WIPO rules do not allow for the protection of intellectual property over natural or genetic resources themselves, but they do help safeguard inventions — made by people — that put these resources at the service of humanity, whether historically or recently.
The agreement will, for example, require companies in industries such as fashion, luxury goods and pharmaceuticals to specify the origin of herbal chemicals in medicines or plants in skin creams that they use in their products. , if extracted from local knowledge.
