From pdh@u.washington.edu Mon Dec 14 13:38:38 1998 Received: from jason05.u.washington.edu (root@jason05.u.washington.edu [140.142.78.6]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW98.06) with ESMTP id NAA12804 for ; Mon, 14 Dec 1998 13:38:38 -0800 Received: from saul6.u.washington.edu (pdh@saul6.u.washington.edu [140.142.82.1]) by jason05.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW98.06) with ESMTP id NAA26422 for ; Mon, 14 Dec 1998 13:38:29 -0800 Received: from localhost (pdh@localhost) by saul6.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW98.06) with SMTP id NAA11152 for ; Mon, 14 Dec 1998 13:38:29 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 13:38:29 -0800 (PST) From: Department of Zoology To: indknow@u.washington.edu Subject: ACTS/UNEP: Africa & the TRIPS Review Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 11:48:25 -0500 From: GRAIN Los Banos Reply-To: bionet2@igc.org To: BIO-IPR List-server@igc.org Subject: ACTS/UNEP: Africa & the TRIPS Review AUTHOR: African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) TITLE: Africa and the Review and Revision of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement of The World Trade Organization (WTO). Call for papers for the International Conference on Intellectual Property Protection and the Convention on Biological Diversity. DATE: February 1999 PLACE: Nairobi, Kenya NOTE: Contact details below. ________________________________________________________ CALL FOR PAPERS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION AND THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AFRICA AND THE REVIEW AND REVISION OF THE TRADE RELATED ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (TRIPs) AGREEMENT OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) Organized by the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Sponsored by Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) Nairobi, Kenya. February, 1999 The agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), of the World Trade Organization, in its Article 27 (3) (b) allows for members to restrict the patenting of life forms. The Article allows for the exclusion of "plants and animals other than micro-organisms and essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals other than non-biological and micro-biological processes." If a party decides to make use of such an exclusion it must still provide "patents or. . . .an effective sui generis system or. . . ..any combination thereof" for the protection of plant varieties. This Article is scheduled for review in June 1999. The review may lead to one of three basic situations: o A clarification of the definition of the terms of Article 27 (3) (b) leading to either an expansion or restriction of members' options under the Article. o A maintenance the current status quo o An excision of the Article in its entirety. This would essentially result in the unrestricted patenting of life forms, a policy which is being strongly backed by the United States. The objective of the International Conference on Intellectual Property Protection and the Convention on Biological Diversity is to prepare African delegations to effectively participate in the TRIPs review through heightened awareness of the issues at stake, particularly regarding the synergies and conflicts with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). A corollary objective would be the formulation of a unified approach to the review. The conference will discuss papers covering the following issues: - The development of Article 27 (3)(b) of TRIPs and Article 15 of the CBD; - A survey of the nature of trade in genetic resources in Africa; - The impacts of economic liberalisation on biodiversity; - TRIPs and access to genetic resources; - TRIPs and biotechnology; - TRIPs and indigenous knowledge. In addition, overview papers on national experiences and other aspects of TRIPs/CBD conflicts and synergies will be presented and discussed. Those wishing to present papers at the conference should submit abstracts by January 1st, 1998. Limited funding is available for authors from developing countries to submit papers and for participation at the Conference. Abstracts should be sent to: Mr. Robert Lettington or Ms. Mita Manek The African Centre for Technology Studies P.O. Box 45917, Nairobi, Kenya Tel: (254-2) 521450-5 Fax: (254-2) 521001 U.S. Tel: (1-650) 8336645 U.S. Fax: (1-650) 8336646 e-mail: acts@form-net.com _________________________________________________________ ABOUT THIS LISTSERVER -- BIO-IPR is an irregular listserver put out by Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN). Its purpose is to circulate information about recent developments in the field of intellectual property rights related to biodiversity & associated knowledge. BIO-IPR is a strictly non-commercial and educational service for nonprofit organisations and individuals active in the struggle against IPRs on life. 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