TITLE: India, US have a tiff
over TRIPS AUTHOR: G Ganapathy Subramaniam PUBLICATION:
Economic Times (India) DATE: 16 December 2005 URL:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1333843.cms
Economic Times | 16 December 2005
INDIA, US HAVE A TIFF OVER TRIPS
G Ganapathy Subramaniam
HONG KONG: India has come into direct confrontation with the US over a proposed amendment to the TRIPS agreement and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). While a number of countries like Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines have given up their opposition to the amendment, the US has singled-handedly blocked the move which is of significance to countries like India due to the growing need to protect traditional knowledge.
The issue is turning into a flashpoint and countries like India are planning to link it with other issues like agriculture and services. It is an irony that the US, which is a major supporter of protection to intellectual property rights, is not even willing to agree on "disclosure" of information related to "traditional knowledge" used to obtain new patents. Even the EU isn't averse to the proposed change, leaving the US as the lone obstacle.
"India is not even asking for sharing of profits derived from patents that use traditional knowledge. The current demand is only for mandatory disclosure of genetic material or traditional knowledge used for inventions that are patented," delegates said. India may seek re-opening of the framework agreement on Doha Development Agenda to seek inclusion of this proposal.
A paper by India expresses concern that the TRIPS Agreement allows granting patents for inventions that use genetic material without requiring that the CBD provisions regarding prior informed consent and benefit sharing are respected. "It has therefore been suggested that the TRIPS Agreement be amended so as to require, or to enable, WTO members to require that patent applicants disclose, as a condition to patentability: (a) the source of any genetic material used in a claimed invention; (b) any related traditional knowledge used in the invention; (c) evidence of prior informed consent from the competent authority in the country of origin of the genetic material; and (d) evidence of fair and equitable benefit sharing. It has been suggested that such provisions could be incorporated into the TRIPS Agreement by amending Article 27.3(b) or Article 29," the proposals say. The US says that such provisions aren't necessary for implementing the CBD provisions.
With India managing to convince also those opposed to the proposal, the US stands as the lone obstacle now.
GOING FURTHER (compiled by GRAIN)
Tove Iren S Gerhardsen, "India,
Brazil tie biodiversity negotiations to Doha development
package", Intellectual Property Watch, Geneva, 15 December
2005.
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=180
International Centre for Trade and Sustainable
Development, "Intellectual property rights (at) Hong
Kong", BRIDGES Trade BioRes, Geneva, 9 December 2005.
http://www.ictsd.org/biores/05-12-09/story2.htm
Government position papers and reports of
discussions in the TRIPS Council on this issue up to now
are available online:
http://www.grain.org/rights/tripsreview.cfm
(scroll down to "Official position papers")