In time for the upcoming second meeting of the “Working Group on Benefit-sharing from the Use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources” (WGDSI-2) taking place from 12 -16 August 2024 in Montreal, our colleagues from the University of Aberdeen are presenting a new policy brief.
Genetic resources are important for scientific innovation and can give rise to valuable new products and knowledge. How the use of genetic resources should be regulated has raised diverse questions for countries, industries, scientists, and international policymakers for over 20 years. Key issues are approaches to misappropriation of resources and existing knowledge; rewarding innovation and investment; encouraging open science; how benefits which arise from innovation might be shared and the extent to which this should be linked with questions of access to resources and tracing subsequent use.
The policy brief (currently still in draft form) titled “Next steps for genetic resources and innovation? The WIPO Treaty and BBNJ Agreement interface” summarises the contexts of developments, identifies key outcomes, and makes suggestions to inform future choices to be made by states regarding access and benefit sharing (ABS), intellectual property (IP), Digital Sequence Information (DSI) and intersections between systems.
The focus of the policy brief is on developments at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) regarding disclosure of origin of genetic resources on which patent applications are based (WIPO Treaty), and on the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement).
The policy brief, which will be presented at WGDSI-2 is available in draft form through the link below.