Activist NGOs Call For Developing Country IP & Economic Welfare (More 'Balance' Needed In IP and Trade); Not For R&D and Business Skills Training

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=898


Intellectual Property Watch


29 January 2008


NGO Panel: More Balance Needed In IP And Trade; Disclosure May Not Be Enough


By Catherine Saez


A more balanced international regime for intellectual property rights and trade is needed to rectify the current system, which too strongly favours developed countries, developing country panellists said at a recent event.


But some say that a proposed requirement to disclose the origin of genetic material and associated traditional knowledge in patent applications would not be sufficient to improve this balance.


The current patent system has been seen as the primary enabling mechanism for biopiracy, the misappropriation of genetic resources, said panellist Xuan Li, coordinator of the innovation and access to knowledge programme at the intergovernmental South Centre. The World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) also has allowed the misappropriation of genetic resources, she said.


[THIS IS PATENTLY UNTRUE AND SMACKS OF SOCIALIST PUBLIC GOODS IDEOLOGY TO DISGUISE PATENT PIRACY PREDILECTIONS]


Li made the remarks at a 24 January event organised by the South Centre and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), held alongside a weeklong meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) working group on access and benefit sharing (ABS).


A Chinese official on the panel also raised these concerns and said that TRIPS is sometimes unbalanced and privileges the holder of IP.


[THE CHINESE ARE DISINGENUOUS, CONSIDERING THEY WISH TO DEVELOP THEIR OWN TEMPORARY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MONOPOLIES]**

A more balanced system should be devised in the future that would be more favourable to developing countries, the official said, adding that an amendment to TRIPS Article 29 on a mandatory disclosure requirement (see South Centre paper [pdf]) is proposed by developing countries including China, in order to bring the agreement more in line with CBD principles, like benefit sharing.


[CHINA TENDS TO PLAY BOTH SIDES OF THE FENCE]**


The protection of biodiversity and the rights of indigenous peoples are being analysed at several international fora. Approaches to the disclosure of origin issue have been raised at the WTO, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the CBD.


As the CBD is a prior treaty to TRIPS, under the Vienna Convention, TRIPS needs to be compatible with the CBD mandate, said panellist Dalindyebo Shabalala, director of the IP and sustainable development project at CIEL.


[THIS ALSO IS UNTRUE - THE LATEST TREATY IN TIME ON THE SAME OR SIMILAR SUBJECT MATTER USUALLY SPEAKS TO THE MORE MODERN INTERPRETATION OF TERMS AND REFLECTS THE MORE MODERN THINKING OF TREATY PARTIES - ESPECIALLY IF THE MORE RECENT TREATY TERMS IN QUESTION ARE MORE SPECIFIC THAN THOSE OF THE EARLIER TREATY ON THE SAME OR SIMILAR SUBJECT - THUS, THE TRIPS RULES ARGUABLY SUPERCEDE THE MORE GENERAL CBD RULES]


The ABS working group was established by the CBD Conference of the Parties at its fifth meeting in May 2000, with a mandate to develop guidelines and other approaches to assist parties and stakeholders with the implementation of the access and benefit-sharing provisions of the convention.


Another mandate was given to the working group in 2004 to elaborate and negotiate an international regime on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing with the aim of adopting an instrument to effectively implement provisions in Articles 8 and 15 and the three objectives of the convention. These include conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources.


In the second mandate of the ABS working group, WIPO was asked to play a significant role in CBD deliberations. Some industrialised countries have sought to have WIPO play the role of the major provider of technical expertise on IP-related issues such as the protection of traditional knowledge and disclosure of origin, according to Shabalala.


However, the processes at WIPO do not fully reflect the human rights dimension of the protection of indigenous/traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, as the delegates and the secretariat have a lack of experience on human rights and environmental issues, he said. According to Shabalala, other United Nations agencies also have competence in understanding IP issues, such as the World Health Organization or the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.


Concerning a certificate of origin for resources, Pierluigi Bozzi of the Economics Department at the University of Rome put into perspective the importance of knowing the precise origin of genetic resources in the context of the CBD. “The unlawful removal of a resource becomes visible only after the event and in times and places far from the original context,” he said.


[THIS IS TYPICAL EUROPEAN POSITION FAVORING 'GEOGRAPHIC INDICATORS' AND RULE OF ORIGIN AS A MEANS OF DISGUISED TRADE PROTECTIONISM]**


The real asset of the ascertainment of the place of the origin of genetic resources would be to bring management and control of a biological element back to its own ecosystem, allowing the country to bear the responsibility for the knowledge and the management of that specific biological component. This would also allow the benefits and incentives to be spread across the entire value chain, not only to the end of it, according to Bozzi. The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits is a “prerequisite” to realise the two first objectives of the CBD (conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity), he said.


[THIS IS A PRESCRIPTION FOR STATE-CENTRALIZED OWNERSHIP OF THE COMMONS - RES COMMUNIS - AND THUS A MANDATE FOR WELFARE STATE SOCIALISM]


The indigenous perspective on disclosure seems somewhat different, according to Le’a Malia Kanehe, legal analyst at the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism. She said that several problems had been identified with disclosure, such as trans-boundary people or biopiracy having taken place prior to the CBD. The latter case would mean that genetic resources would be ex-situ, outside of indigenous control. But the main concern of the indigenous peoples, according to Kanehe, is to find out if disclosure really addresses the rights and interests of indigenous peoples, particularly in the case where national law does not recognise indigenous peoples’ rights.


[NOW, THIS IS A LEGITIMATE CONCERN]


An ongoing international project to develop prior art databases of traditional knowledge for patent examiners also is potential dangerous as they might become a “shopping list” of traditional knowledge over which indigenous people could lose both ownership and control (IPW, Biodiversity/Genetic Resources/Biotechnology, 19 December 2007; IPW, Subscribers, 17 December 2007). An international patent system might not be consistent with local customary laws, she said. Indigenous people should have the choice whether or not to commercialise their knowledge. “We don’t want to be third-party beneficiaries,” she said.


[THIS ARTICLE'S PORTRAYAL OF THE CURRENT PRIVATE PROPERTY-BASED GLOBAL IP STANDARDS AS UNFAIR TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IS NOT ONLY WRONG, BUT ALSO REFLECTS AN IDEOLOGY PREDISPOSED AGAINST PRIVATE PROPERTY IN FAVOR OF 'PUBLIC GOODS'.

THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE CONSIDERING THAT ALL WHICH IS NECESSARY TO PROECT THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS AND OTHER DEVELOPING COUNTRY CITIZENS WHO ARE 'INVENTORS' AND PROPERTY HOLDERS IS A NATIONAL 'RULE OF LAW' FRAMEWORK THAT RECOGNIZES AND PROTECTS EXCLUSIVE PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS IN PATENTED DISCOVERIES AND DERIVATIVE INNOVATIONS.

WHAT IS CRUCIAL AND IMPORTANT IS THAT THE DISCOVERIES CAN BE REDUCED TO THE UNIVERSAL STANDARD FOR PATENTABILITY: NOVEL, USEFUL & UNOBVIOUS. TO SUGGEST THAT ANY EFFORT TO REDUCE TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE TO SUCH A STANDARD WOULD, IPSO FACTO, SHORTCHANGE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IS CLEARLY INACCURATE AND FALSE.

THE COMMONS IS OWNED BY NO ONE, NOT EVEN THE STATE, THOUGH THE STATE CAN ACT AS 'TRUSTEE' FOR ITS CITIZENS IN PRESERVING AND PROTECTING THE PUBLIC GOOD DERIVED FROM THE USE OR NONUSE OF THE COMMONS. WHILE THE STATE MAY FAIRLY CHARGE AN ACCESS FEE TO 'TAKE' FROM THE COMMONS, IT SHOULD NOT BE ENTITLED TO ANYTHING MORE THAN AN ADMINISTRATIVE FEE. IT SHOULD NOT BE ENTITLED TO DERIVE A ROYALTY STREAM FROM THE HUMANLY MANIPULATED PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM NATURE, UNLESS THE STATE HAS BEEN INVOLVED, SCIENTIFICALLY AND/OR ECONOMICALLY IN SOME OF THE HUMAN MANIPULATION OF THE NATURE THAT RESULTS IN MARKET-RELEVANT INNOVATIONS .

ONLY TO THE EXTENT THAT FLORA EXTRACTED FROM THE 'COMMONS' (NATURE), PRESUMABLY WITH STATE OR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE CONSENT, CAN BE PROVEN TO HAVE BEEN SUFFICIENTLY MANIPULATED BY HUMANS IN SUCH AS WAY AS TO MAKE IT NOVEL, USEFUL AND UNOBVIOUS, CAN THE RESULTING DISCOVERY/INNOVATION BE PATENTED AND LATER COMMERCIALIZED FOR PROFIT AS PRIVATE PROPERTY.

CONSIDERING ITS MANY INACCURATE STATEMENTS, THE ADVICE GIVEN IN THIS ARTICLE BY THE AUTHOR, IF FOLLOWED, WILL ACTUALLY DEPRIVE DEVELOPING COUNTRY CITIZENS OF THE OPPORTUNITY TO INNOVATE THEMSELVES. BY FOCUSING ON ALLEGED 'BIOPIRACY' RATHER THAN HELPING DEVELOPING COUNTRY INVENTORS TO BECOME SKILLED IN RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACTUALLY FOSTERS GREATER STATE WELFARE AT THE EXPENSE OF INDIVIDUAL WELFARE WHICH IS NOT ENHANCED AS A RESULT.

LASTLY, THIS ARTICLE SEEMS TO PROMOTE A 'NEGATIVE PARADIGM' OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INSOFAR AS IT ADVOCATES IN FAVOR OF STATE-CENTRED OR EVEN SUPRANATIONAL UN-CENTERED GOVERNANCE THAT DIMINISHES INDIVIDUAL GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY FOR THE SAKE OF THE 'PUBLIC GOOD'. HENCE, UNDER THE PROPOSED SYSTEM INDIVIDUALS WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO REALIZE THEIR HUMAN POTENTIALS.]