Patenting Lives

The implications of changes to international intellectual property law for development and diversity

Project Director: Dr Johanna Gibson j.gibson@qmul.ac.uk

Project Host: Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute

Overview

The impact of international intellectual property standards and their harmonisation, and the obligations upon developing and least developed countries to implement those standards, are key concerns of many significant groups, including indigenous and traditional communities, intellectual property researchers, policy advisors, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The Doha Ministerial Declaration (Doha) and the review of the TRIPS Article 27(3)(b) (the Article dealing with the patentability of animal and plant life) indicate the importance of these concerns to the agenda of harmonisation of international intellectual property. These issues are closely linked to international concerns with biological and cultural diversity, and the principles of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The Patenting Lives project will consider especially the relevance of patents on life forms to other international frameworks, including biodiversity, the environment, and human rights. The project will consider whether intellectual property protection is compatible with the facilitation of social, cultural, and economic development of non-industrialised countries in the context of international principles of trade.

Of particular interest to the project is the relationship between patents and the protection of and access to genetic resources, and the particular impact on developing and least-developed countries, as well as traditional and indigenous groups. In September 2004, the Geneva Declaration on the Future of WIPO was launched, with over 600 signatures, and the Brazil/Argentina proposal on the WIPO Development Agenda was tabled at that meeting, and subsequently adopted at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) General Assembly. In the context of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, WIPO has assumed an emphasis on patent law in the recognition and protection of genetic resources. At the recent Seventh Session, staged in November 2004, mandatory disclosure of origin and prior informed consent were considered in detail in the context of patent law and industry access and commercialisation, and the preference for contractual mechanisms for managing that access was strenuously debated.

This project is timed to coincide with the significant international discussions currently taking place on this topic, and complements the critical input NGOs into these discussions, particularly in the context of development agenda and the Access to Treaty discussions, making the publication of its output timely and anticipated.

The project activities will be presented at several key conferences throughout the project period, and will be disseminated periodically through peer-reviewed journals. The ultimate outcome of this research will be an edited book of papers from all participants.

The discussions in the expert meeting will produce working materials to be disseminated through the project web-site and through discussion lists. A Conference at QMIPRI at the end of the Project will also provide other papers for collection in the edited work, or subsequent works in a series.

A web-site has been created, www.patentinglives.org, upon which developments in this research will be posted. Subject to resources, this web-site will also be translated into Spanish to facilitate access to the research in Central and South America, in view of the especially biodiversity-rich communities in those areas.

Subject to discussions with the expert meeting, the preparation of a collaborative working paper and recommendations will be made public on the web-site or through other means. The expert meeting will consider whether the outcomes will be made as a policy paper, declaration, or other form. Such a document would be of interest to the Access to Knowledge discussions, and would be circulated on these lists and at the expert consultations.

Dissemination will also occur through media releases, including newspaper interviews, and other media coverage.

The research will be of key interest not only to intellectual property practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, and indigenous and traditional groups, but also to other experts, including socio-legal researchers, sociologists, political theorists, and anthropologists.

Aims and objectives

The project will produce an inter-disciplinary study of the concerns and issues outlined above, gathering anthropologists, sociologists, scientists, economic and legal policy experts, and intellectual property experts. This is a significant contribution made by the project arising from an awareness of the need to address the wider context in which intellectual property law is developed and is applied. This will forge important inter-disciplinary collaborative links with researchers throughout the United Kingdom. It is also hoped that the project will form the model upon which subsequent international projects can be based.

The working materials produced by the expert group will outline the major concerns and observations, and will provide an important resource for other researchers to consult in the course of work in this area. As mentioned, participants will also produce papers from this meeting towards a collection to be edited by the project director, Johanna Gibson, developing and communicating the broader outcomes and ongoing examination throughout the project, and situating these developments in the context of related concerns, including technology transfer, access to technology (including medicines), and management of local resources in a global context of intellectual property trade. Papers presented at the Conference to be held at QMIPRI towards the end of 2005 will also be considered for this collection.

The rationale is to disseminate the research as broadly as possible because of its very contemporary relationship to the developments in international intellectual property instruments, therefore making it of significant interest to others approaching these recent issues and reforms.

Research context

The urgency of these discussions for developing countries should not be under-stated. It is essential to understand and address the impact of these anticipated reforms for developing countries and to appreciate the impact of international harmonisation upon local resources. This will include related international instruments, including the CBD and UPOV, and the need to consider the context for protection more holistically, addressing cultural and social development and community capacity.

Given the current and rapid developments in this area, and the considerable significance for developing and least developed countries, it is critical that research is committed to the thorough and efficient dissemination of material regarding these amendments, its expeditious publication of comprehensive peer-reviewed research, and concrete policy and socio-legal conclusions drawn. While there are competent experts researching in this field, the major objective of this project is to assemble this expertise and to concentrate on addressing these issues and developments specifically in several significant inter-disciplinary yet legally relevant documents.

This project will enhance and develop this kind of inter-disciplinary approach to these critical issues and will ensure diversity in the academic response to these legal questions. For these reasons, the outcomes of this project will be of significant interest to intellectual property experts and stakeholders, policy advisors, sociologists, anthropologists, scientists, NGOs, as well as indigenous and traditional groups, and representatives from developing and least developed countries.

Research method

The project launches with the expert meeting of 11 February 2005. This meeting gathers experts and stakeholders in intellectual property, policy advisors, representatives of NGOs, political scientists, and anthropologists. This meeting provides an important opportunity to discuss the details of the research towards the collaborative edited collection. Most significantly, the assembling of experts across diverse but related fields will ensure the breadth and integrity of the collaboration in this respect, as well as the relevance of the research across to the widest range of interested persons and groups.

At this initial meeting, the form of materials to be disseminated will be considered. However, it is anticipated that this meeting will produce a working paper or materials which can be collaboratively edited and re-drafted through a distributed editing process, using a discussion list for participants.

Dissemination of these issues at this time is crucial, because many are being re-shaped and reformed in the context of significant mobilisation of the public interest through NGO activity in particular. Expert legal opinion is required at this very important historical juncture. Therefore, the widest possible dissemination of the results will be sought, because there is a distinct need at this moment, in the history and development of international intellectual property and of WIPO itself, to provide coherent, cogent, and relevant considerations of and solutions to these questions. This project is of critical international legal and political significance, and is timed to make the most meaningful contribution to the key developments and academic debate in this very volatile and often controversial legal area.

Dr Johanna Gibson, Project Director

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