The fight for rights Links

8 things you should know about patents on life
An article by Dinyar Godrej for the September 2002 issue of New Internationalist

A2K initiative
The goal of the A2K initiative is Access to Knowledge for all people. This site currently provides information and tools for action on the proposed A2K Treaty, the Development Agenda reforms to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and other aspects of A2K.

Acción Ecologica
Acción Ecologica, in Ecuador, presents a series of campaign pages against patenting life (in Spanish only)

ActionAid food rights campaign
ActionAid produces numerous materials on TRIPS and biopiracy in the context of its Food Rights campaign

ANU Centre for Governance of Knowledge and Development
Publications page of the Regulatory institutions Network (Peter Drahos et al.) with a range of papers on IPR-related matters.

APEC IPR Expert Group
Reflects the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum's work on IPR.

bilaterals.org
A collaborative, open-publishing site on bilateral trade and investment agreements

biodiversidadla.org
Biodiversidad en América Latina provides regular news and analytical reports on biodiversity issues, including IPRs on life and the struggle for community rights related to food and farming (in Spanish only)

Biopiracy in the Amazon
Amazonlink's website on biopiracy in the Brazilian Amazon

Biopropiedad
A website set up around the WIPO-sponsored national seminar on "Derechos Indígenas y los Sistemas de Propiedad Intelectual Conservación y Gestión de Biodiversidad y Conocimiento Tradicional" at the University of Buenos Aires in February 2002. Documents and legislation pushing IPRs for indigenous and local communities. In Spanish only.

BIOTHAI
BIOTHAI (Biodiversity and Community Rights Action Thailand) is a national network that promotes farmers' control and community rights over local biodiversity

Blogging biodiversity
International negotiations from a personal perspective. Kathryn Garforth is an independent legal researcher and consultant working in the areas of biodiversity, health and intellectual property rights.

British Library IPR links
The British Library maintains a good set of links to all aspects of intellectual property: patent offices, journals, databases, organisations, etc.

CBD
The Convention on Biological Diversity is a legally binding treaty to promote the conservation, sustainable use and sharing of benefits from genetic resources

CBD database on ABS measures
The Convention on Biological Diversity database on access and benefit sharing laws and regulations

CGIAR Central Advisory Service on Intellectual Property
A centralised advisory service on intellectual property issues for the research centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

Consejo
A blog with news & commentary on legal developments affecting scientific research, agriculture, technology & development produced by a US attorney based in Mexico (not updated since Dec 2003)

Derwent daily patent news
Daily newswires on patents and IPR in various fields, including biotechnology.

EC ABS portal
European Community portal on access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing

ELDIS IPR Resource Centre
A gateway to key documents, organisations, discussions and other key resources about IPRs and development, hosted by the the Institude for Development Studies at the University of Sussex (UK)

Esp@cenet
The European Patent Office's online database

ETC Blog
A regular drip of bits and bytes of news, views and significant ideas to accompany ETC Group’s less regular publications and communiques.

ETC Group
The ETC Group (formerly RAFI) is dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights, and produce many analytical materials on IPRs and other forms of monopoly control in food and agriculture.

FAO CPGRFA
The FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is a permanent forum where governments discuss and negotiate matters relevant to genetic resources for food and agriculture, including Farmers' Rights and intellectual property rights.

Farmers' Rights Project
Project carried out by The Fridtjof Nansen Institute (Norway) to provide an empirical basis for constructive proposals to the Governing Body on the realisation of farmers' rights as formulated in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

Forum on Patenting of Life / Forum sur le brevetage du vivant
FPL/FPV seeks to challenge privatisation, monopoly control and patenting of life (Canada)

Forum on Privatization and the Public Domain
The goals of the Forum are to create a public voice on the issues raised by the relentless expansion of what are considered to be patentable products, processes, discoveries, inventions and appropriated goods, or what is commonly referred to as intellectual property

Free patents online
Freepatentsonline.com is a new website providing access to millions of US patents - including PDF downloads - for free.

Friends of the commons
Friends of the Commons is a project of the Tides Foundation. We report on the state of our commons (seeds, air, water, etc) and support other citizens working to protect and expand our commons.

Gene Campaign
Gene Campaign is an Indian NGO focusing on the rights of local communities over biological resources

Greenpeace patents on life campaign
Greenpeace's work against patents on life is part of its international campaign on genetic engineering

ICC IPR page
The International Chamber of Commerce maintains a web page on IPR issues seen from the perspective of big business

Indigenous Peoples' Council on Biocolonialism
The IPCB is organized to assist indigenous peoples in the protection of their genetic resources, indigenous knowledge, cultural and human rights from the negative effects of biotechnology

IP Justice
IP Justice is an international civil liberties organization that promotes balanced intellectual property law in a digital world. Based in the US.

IP strategy today
IP Strategy Today is published by bioDevelopments-International Institute, in collaboration with individuals at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University and at The Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University.

IP Watch
Intellectual Property Watch is a Geneva-based journalistic initiative to report on the interests and ‘behind the scenes’ dynamics which influence the design and implementation of intellectual property policies.

iprsonline.org
A portal on IPRs and sustainable development, jointly produced by ICTSD and UNCTAD

ISF
The International Seed Federation website contains the global seed industry's position papers on IPR and biotech issues, as well as links to regional and national seed industry associations.

OAS IPR page
A directory from the Organisation of American States of national IPR laws

Patenting lives
Patenting Lives is a research project hosted by Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, University of London, on the patenting of life forms and the implications for developing countries.

Patentmatics
A voluntary educational site exclusively on IPRs and related science, technology & development issues (India)

Pipers
Pipers, based in New Zealand, maintains an up-to-date directory of IPR offices, attorneys and resource centres around the world.

SciDev.net
SciDev.net, a joint effort of Science and Nature magazines, provides news and opinion on science and technology issues related to developing countries, including special dossiers on intellectual property, indigenous knowledge and biodiversity (several languages).

South Centre
The South Centre is an intergovernmental organisation of developing countries with an active work programme on intellectual property issues

Stoppt die Biopiraten!
BUKO Agrarkoordination's biopiracy campaign website (in German)

Treaty Initiative to Share the Genetic Commons
An initiative to establish the Earth's gene pool, in all of its biological forms and manifestations, as a global commons to be jointly shared by all peoples

UK IPR Commission
The Commission on Intellectual Property Rights was set up by the UK government to look into how national and international intellectual property rules and practices might be improved to take greater account of the needs and interests of poor people and developing countries

UKabc
UKabc is an activity of the UK Food Group bringing together public interest UK organisations concerned with sustainable use, conservation, benefit sharing, trade, patents, intellectual property, biopiracy, biotechnology, genetic engineering, biosafety and other issues related to the equitable use of agricultural biodiversity for local food and livelihood security and food sovereignty

UNCTAD Biotrade Initiative
The Biotrade Initiative is an UNCTAD programme pushing trade in biological diversity and traditional knowledge

Unisféra
Unisféra International Centre is an independent not-for-profit research centre based in Montreal, Canada.

UNPO
he Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is a democratic, international membership organization of indigenous peoples, occupied nations, minorities and independent states or territories who have joined together to protect their human and cultural rights, preserve their environments, and to find non-violent solutions to conflicts which affect them.

UPOV
Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties

USPTO
The US Patent and Trademark Office has an online database of patents and patent applications.

USTR
The website of the US Trade Representative contains news and documents about what the US government is doing to strengthen IPR protection worldwide through its trade policies

Valley of 1000 Hills
Supporting the rights of African local communities and farmers to food security & sovereignty, biological resources, biodiversity, indigenous knowledge & technologies

Via Campesina position papers
Via Campesina's position papers on farmers' rights, biodiversity, genetic resources, food sovereignty, etc.

Why biotech patents are patently absurd
A scientific briefing paper by Dr Mae Wan Ho, jointly published in 2001 by Institute of Science in Society and Third World Network

WIPO
The World Intellectual Property Organisation is a UN body promoting intellectual property rights worldwide

WIPO on traditional knowledge
Since 2001, WIPO provides a forum for international policy debate on the interplay between intellectual property and traditional knowledge, genetic resources, traditional cultural expressions (folklore) aimed at enhancing IPR for the holders of such knowledge, resources and expressions

World Food Policy
WorldFoodPolicy.org seeks to examine the inextricable link between biotechnology, hunger, intellectual property rights, food trade and poverty from viewpoints that critique corporate and Trade Bloc perspectives. The website welcomes contributions from policy analysts, campaigners, trade negotiators, bureaucrats, academics, activists.

WTO TRIPS Agreement
Basic information about the TRIPS Agreement from the World Trade Organisation