Statement by India at 14th Session of WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore on 29 June 2009

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 Mr. Chairman,

1.  The delegation of India joins other delegations in congratulating you on your continuation as the Chair of the 14th Session of the IGC and looks forward to concrete progress in this session, under your leadership,  on the important issues being discussed over the last several years in this Committee.  My delegation also wishes to sincerely thank the Secretariat for the extensive research and excellent documentation undertaken for the IGC since its inception   , and for the useful and timely informal consultations held prior to this Session.

2.   Mr. Chairman, we are all aware that in the last nine years, this Committee has produced more than 15 documents and extensively reviewed legal and policy options for the protection of Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions based on comprehensive analyses of international, regional and national experiences, legal mechanisms, common elements of protection, case studies, surveys of the international policy and legal environment,  as well as key principles and objectives of protection, that have  received support in the Committee’s earlier sessions.  However, there has been no tangible progress on evolving effective modalities for international protection.  Meanwhile, as we continue to deliberate and discuss these issues, in the absence of any internationally binding legal instrument of protection, more than 2000 cases of misappropriation are regrettably taking place every year, in Indian Traditional Medicinal Knowledge, alone.  If one were to consider the total number of misappropriations through wrongful international patents in the last nine years since this IGC was set up, the figure would be a staggering one, in the range of several thousands.  It is important to realize Mr. Chairman, that this is not just a statistical figure; it represents a huge economic, cultural, developmental and emotive loss for several marginalized communities and right holders from deriving the legitimate benefits from their common assets and heritage.

3.   Against the background of such misappropriations and with the objective of protecting its genetic resources and associated Traditional Knowledge, Mr. Chairman, India has enacted legislations that address all the 3 core elements in the ongoing global discourse on protection: the elements of Disclosure, Prior Informed Consent and Access and Benefit Sharing. The Indian Patents Act provides for mandatory disclosure of source and geographical origin of biological material used in the invention and provides for revocation of the patent in the event of non-disclosure. India’s National Bio-diversity Act secures equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of accessed biological resources, under mutually agreed terms and conditions.  While the administrative framework for the above legislations is already in place, we are now focusing on evolving effective mechanisms for implementing these provisions.  As a first step, as many of you are aware, India has undertaken a pioneering initiative by setting up a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library containing 200,000 traditional Indian medicinal formulations spread over 30 million pages and available in 5 international languages – French, Japanese, German, English and Spanish.  The European Patent Office has been authorized access to the database for Search and Examination purposes and a similar arrangement is expected to be operationalized very soon in respect of the USPTO. While we are hopeful that this would prevent misappropriation, India continues to believe that an optimal solution to this global challenge, would be a legally binding international instrument.

4.   Indeed, Mr. Chairman, if the mass of useful analyses and information and the deliberations of the last several years in the IGC are to logically culminate in a meaningful conclusion, this Session which will consider the important issue of the renewal of the IGC’s mandate, has a historic opportunity to move forward on the basis of a focused action plan, towards evolving an effective legally binding system of international protection that ensures that Traditional Knowledge, Genetic resources and Traditional Cultural Expressions become a tool for wealth creation and socio-economic development for the right-holders of these knowledge systems.

5.   It is against this background that we welcome the African Group’s useful suggestion for beginning this session with a discussion on the agenda item ‘Future Work’ and support their proposal for inter-sessional work to make concrete progress on the complex issues involved.  It is again, with the same objective in mind,  that we thank the African Group for their valuable and timely proposal regarding renewal of the mandate of the IGC.  We strongly support the African Group proposal and look forward to the renewal of the IGC’s mandate on the basis of a clearly defined work program and timeframe and text- based negotiations, leading to a legally-binding international agreement on genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions. Finally, we would like to invite all Member States to engage positively and constructively in this week’s deliberations, so as to achieve tangible outcomes.

Thank you Mr. Chairman

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