Geneva, Switzerland
September 26, 2012
By Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch
Farmers’ needs are not addressed by the current intellectual property framework or by innovation, according to panellists at the World Trade Organization Public Forum this week, and farmers should be invited to participate in international negotiations directly impacting their livelihood. Meanwhile, the African continent is seeking a way to address the food security problem, faced with a growing population and dire need to modernise their agriculture, other panellists said.
A session on agriculture and farmers’ needs was organised by the Quaker United Nations Office and the International Institute for Environment and Development during the WTO Public Forum taking place from 24-26 September. The session sought to bring elements to the discussion on what kind of intellectual property framework would be most adapted to improve food production, and what kind of innovations are or should be promoted by this framework.
There is a range of international instruments dealing with various aspects of IP protection and seeds, said Antony Taubman, director of the Intellectual Property Division at the WTO. Compliance with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) requires protection for plant varieties either by patents or a sui generis system, such as the one provided by International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).
The work on this topic at the WTO is not “enormously active” at the moment, Taubman said, as the review process of TRIPS Article 27.3 b (on exclusion from patentability of plants and animals) has been going on for over a decade. Article 27.3 b mentions that its provision would be reviewed four years after the date of entry into force of TRIPS. This process has not led to any specific conclusions, he said, but has provided “a good deal of information” on the subject, which gives the WTO a much stronger position to analyse and discuss specific choices that members have taken, he added.
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