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Home:   Society:   Issues:   Intellectual Property:   Genetic Resources

Sites:

Commission on Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR)  - http://www.iprcommission.org/  UK Government IPR Commission's website containing background, papers, and conference reports. Commission's Report: "Integrating IPRs and Development Policy" now available.  International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture  - http://www.ukabc.org/iu2.htm  UKabc portal on the IT PGRFA (International Seed Treaty) that governs the access, use, conservation and development of the genetic resources of food security crop and forage species. Treaty outlaws IPRs on selected PGRFA. Links to all official FAO, media and CSO resources on the Treaty.  UPOV - International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants  - http://www.upov.int/eng/index.htm  Website of the institution that governs this 50 nation Convention on Plant Variety Protection (PVP) of crops and flowers. Details of the Convention, membership, conduct, implementation and so on.  TRIPs, Sui Generis and Plant Variety Protection  - http://www.twnside.org.sg/access_5.htm  Third World Network's pages on IP issues. Extensive and historical coverage of the issues from an authoritative developing country perspective.  Small-scale Producers' Intellectual Rights to Agricultural Biodiversity  - http://www.ukabc.org/ipr2.htm  Introduction to the issues in a Kenyan context, with an emphasis on farmers, pastoralists and fisherfolk, and the need for protocols on intellectual property. Includes Via Campesina's statement on Farmers' Rights.  Intellectual Property and Community Rights  - http://www.grain.org/themes/dsp_theme.cfm?theme_id=101  Authoritative introduction to these issues by Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN) with links to key documents on patents, PVP, WTO/TRIPs and corporate control of agricultural biodiversity.  TRIPs, Biodiversity and Commonwealth Countries  - http://www.ukabc.org/TRIPs/cs_exsum.htm  Discussion paper prepared for the Commonwealth Secretariat on capacity building priorities for the Review of TRIPs Article 27.3(b). Extensive links to related papers and sites.  WorldTrade Organisation - TRIPs / Patents pages  - http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/intel2_e.htm#patents  WTO's pages on the Agreement on Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property rights (TRIPs), highlighting the patents clauses which include genetic resources patents. Links to all other aspects of trade and intellectual property.  Alternative Mechanisms to Enhance Corporate Monopoly and BioSerfdom in the 21st Century  - http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=271  ETC Group Communiqué on the uncertainties surrounding intellectual property rights, which, being increasingly unacceptable to industry, is why new tools for monopoly control of biological and other resources are being developed.  Comparing sui generis rights systems  - http://www.biotech-monitor.nl/index36.htm  Theme issue of Biotechnology and Development Monitor journal on Plant Variety Rights and sui generis systems. Journal covers all aspects of IPRs, seed systems and biotechnology. Links through home page of journal.  Seeding Solutions  - http://www.idrc.ca/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=548&CATID=15  Full text and publication details of Volume 1 (ownership, conservation and exchange of genetic resources) and Volume 2 (legal mechanisms) which update People, Plants and Patents. Published by The Crucible Group/IDRC in 2000.  Porto Alegre Treaty to Share the Global Commons  - http://www.ukabc.org/genetic_commons_treaty.htm  Full text and background of proposed treaty designed to ensure that governments and Indigenous Peoples, who are the caretakers of their part of the genetic commons, establish the appropriate statutory mechanisms needed to ensure both sovereignty and open access to the world's genetic diversity.  Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Prior Art Database (TEK*PAD)  - http://ip.aaas.org/tekpad  An online, searchable archive of public domain documented traditional ecological knowledge concerning indigenous knowledge and plant species uses necessary to establish prior art.  Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO)  - http://www.geneva.quno.info/  Site contains Trade and Development pages which include all QUNO publications on Trade and Intellectual Property, including aspects related to: Food, Sui Generis systems, Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Traditional Knowledge  World Patent System  - http://www.grain.org/publications/wipo-patent-2002-en.cfm  Review by GRAIN of moves by the World Intellectual Property Organisation to implement a single global system for approval and administration of patents.  Canadian Forum on the Patenting of Life  - http://www.fpl-fbv.ca  Provides information which challenges the privatisation, monopoly control and patenting of living organisms and which promotes alternatives. Discussion forums, resources, links.  Trade, Intellectual Property, Food and Biodiversity  - http://www.geneva.quno.info/pdf/trips-col.pdf?PHPSESSID=9b8f3a25bea0bc6fa5cd2dc3b97d82bb  Discussion paper prepared for the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) on key issues and options for the review of Article 27.3(b) of the WTO/TRIPs Agreement. Includes discussion of impacts on food security and agricultural biodiversity.  WIPO: Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore  - http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/  World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) pages on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources with links to Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore. Includes coverage of the intergovernmental committee covering all three issues.  People, Plants and Patents  - http://web.idrc.ca/en/ev-9317-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html  Full text of 1994 book on the impact of intellectual property on trade, agricultural biodiversity, and rural society by The Crucible Group, hosted by IDRC.  The True Cost of Gene Patents: The Economic and Social Consequences of Patenting Genes and Living Organisms  - http://weblog.greenpeace.org/ge/archives/1Study_True_Costs_Gene_Patents.pdf  This Greenpeace report is one in a series that call for a substantial restriction of, or a complete end to, the patenting of genes and living organisms(2004)  Action Aid Food Rights Campaign: TRIPs review  - http://www.actionaid.org.uk/793/trips.html  Resources related to Action Aid's campaign on genetic resources with links to papers on IPRs, TRIPs, GM crops, agricultural trade and corporate control.