Recent developments in the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore

Abstract

SUMMARY 1. The Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore ('the Committee') decided at its sixth session to develop two complementary sets of materials: (i) " an overview of policy objectives and core principles for the protection of traditional knowledge (TK) " ; and (ii) " an outline of the policy options and legal elements for the protection of TK subject matter, together with a brief analysis of the policy and practical implications of each option and element. " 2. The separate document WIPO/GRTKF/IC/7/5 provides draft material for the first proposed outcome, the overview of policy objectives and core principles. Such general requirements may in practice be implemented by a wide range of distinct national and regional legal mechanisms, ranging over diverse forms of IP right, adapted IP rights, the general law of unfair competition and various general legal mechanisms beyond the scope of IP law proper (such as criminal law, the law of delict/torts, the general law of civil liability, cultural heritage preservation laws, blasphemy laws, customary laws, contract law, employment law and marketing and labeling laws and schemes). National policymakers have a wide choice of policy options and legal mechanisms to give effect to objectives and principles such as those suggested in WIPO/GRTKF/IC/7/5. The present document illustrates the choice by providing draft materials for the Committee's review that could form the second agreed outcome, the outline of policy options and legal mechanisms. It illustrates that it is possible to draw from varied existing practical experiences and select specific mechanisms, causes of action, doctrines and other means to achieve such objectives and to implement such principles. 3. Similiarly to WIPO/GRTKF/IC/7/5, the material in this companion document is not, in substance, new to the Committee: it simply distils and structures the existing legal mechanisms and the extensive practical experience with protection of TK that have already been widely discussed by the Committee, and draws on the Committee's own deliberations and on the diverse materials put to the Committee by many Member States and observers. The contents of this document find their origins in the extensive community-based consultations in 1998 and 1999 which allowed WIPO to listen directly to TK holders about their needs for legal protection; in the many interventions and submissions made by Memb…