WIPO: Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources Treaty Negotiations Move Slowly | Brazilian Amazon Rainforest: More Than Commodities + Trade in Digital Services with Denmark

The UN Brief reports on the latest policies, initiatives, and debates at the heart of the global digital economy. Copyright: THE UN BRIEF, Maya Plentz

We have interviewed, via email, Mr. Wend Wendland, he is Director of the Traditional Knowledge Division, at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and Secretary of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore.

He has worked at WIPO for more than two decades, knows the organization inside and out, and here does a thorough job explaining what these upcoming negotiations are all about, and the challenges to arrive at a reformulation of the global intellectual property system.

In the view of many, it is a system that still relies on colonial times ideas of appropriating genetic resources and traditional knowledge without compensating properly the rightful owners of these traditions and the countries, tribes, indigenous communities that cultivate them. WIPO stakeholders are trying to redress that.

If you are new to the subject his comments are a great introduction to the subject.

Check the reference link…