The Eighth Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore (IGC) will be held in Geneva on 6-10 June 2005. The Eighth Session will be the last meeting of the IGC under the mandate established by the WIPO General Assembly in 2003, which instructed the IGC, inter alia, to “accelerate its work” and “focus on the international dimension of intellectual property, genetic resources, traditional knowledge, and folklore,” excluding “no outcome, including the possible development of an international instrument or instruments in this field.” In particular, the Eighth Session will discuss the revised texts of draft provisions developed to address the international level of the protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions/folklore against misappropriation. As a result, the Eighth Session will be fundamental to advancing the development concerns at the core of the work of WIPO on these issues: the need to establish international and legally-binding provisions to effectively protect traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions/folklore from misappropriation, particularly in the context of intellectual property.
The present Background Note aims to support the advancement of these development concerns in the Eighth Session of the IGC in several ways. First, it will provide an analysis of the revised texts of draft provisions, focusing primarily on traditional knowledge. Second, it will examine the different legal options put forth for advancing the international protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions/folklore against misappropriation. Finally, as the Eighth Session will address the possibility of ex tending the mandate of the IGC and prepare recommendations for the WIPO General Assembly, the Note will present some issues that may be considered in this context.