Current Focus

The Quaker International Affairs Programme (QIAP) works in collaboration with the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva on trade and intellectual property issues. In the last 20 years, new rules on the scope and territorial extent for intellectual property rights (patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc.) have expanded beyond national and existing multilateral arenas (i.e. World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)) to bilateral, regional and World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade agreements.

The new rules being negotiated extend high minimum standards for intellectual property protection on all signatory states at the WTO (the majority of which are developing countries) and in regional/bilateral agreements. As a result, developing countries no longer have the same flexibility or policy options that developed countries had over the past 200 years in using intellectual property to support what is appropriate for their level of national development.

These new rules apply to a range of biologically based materials, including life forms (such as microorganisms, seeds and plants), that many countries may not have previously been obliged to protect. This will impact upon key development areas important for social and economic prosperity such as: food security, agriculture and access to genetic resources, biodiversity, environment, health and access to essential medicines, and the protection of traditional knowledge, folklore and cultural property.

QIAP’s objective is to enhance the fairness of the negotiating process by providing information to decisions-makers and facilitating off-the-record dialogue.
 
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