WIPO: 15th Session of the IGC

Natural Justices seem to be everywhere this week. Not only are they in Copenhagen for COP 15 and Cairo for the Pan African Regional on ABS but also Geneva, Switzerland for WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC). Gino Cocchiaro, an associate of Natural Justice, has attended the week long negotiations, which will be the first since the IGC’s new mandate that includes a call to submit to the WIPO General Assembly text (or texts) of an international instrument (or instruments) to ensure the effective protection of genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions by 2011, has come into force. Natural Justice is eager to see whether this historically protracted process will gather pace given the new mandate and spur parties to fruitful text-based negotiations on the proposed international instrument.