New UN treaty to provide better protection against biopiracy
Published: Friday, May 24th 2024, 14:50
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A new UN treaty aims to put a further stop to biopiracy. Companies that use traditional knowledge and plants or other organisms from indigenous peoples to develop products will in future have to disclose their origin when applying for patents.
The aim is to prevent traditional knowledge from being exploited for profit without the original owners being involved. The treaty, which was adopted in Geneva on Friday, is the first time that the interests of indigenous groups have been taken into account in an international agreement on patent regulations, according to the UN Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Many have been using such knowledge for thousands of years.
"We have made history today," said Wipo Director General Daren Tang on Friday night when the text of the agreement was finalized. The treaty was negotiated for more than 20 years. It will come into force when 15 of the 193 Wipo member countries have ratified it.
How traditional knowledge is exploited
Thousands of cosmetics, medicines and other products are developed from natural products. These include, for example, the sweetener from the stevia plant, which has always been used for sweetening in South America. The effect of washed-out jeans is achieved with bleaching agents that use an enzyme that can work under extreme conditions. It comes from salt lakes in Kenya or Tanzania in Africa. In many cases, the knowledge about the effect of plants or organisms has been made known through studies and then exploited by companies to develop products without the local people having any benefit.
What the new contract does
The use of such resources is actually already regulated under the International Convention on Biological Diversity. However, not everyone adheres to it and many countries have few resources to effectively protect their traditional knowledge.
The Wipo agreement is seen as an additional opportunity to establish fairness. In future, companies will have to publish the origin of material and knowledge when filing patent applications. The countries concerned can then check whether the companies had all the necessary authorizations and whether appropriate contracts for use have been concluded.
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