110. The representative of Japan said that his delegation's position on the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD remained unchanged. It was of the view that the issue of compliance with the CBD be addressed separately from the issue of erroneously granted patents. In this regard, his delegation had made a proposal on database systems for patent examination purposes. He said that the issue of compliance with the CBD needed to be discussed in a comprehensive manner. His delegation was not convinced by the argument that the mandatory disclosure requirement could effectively monitor the violation of the CBD. He said that more in-depth, comprehensive, technical and factual discussions were needed. He informed the Council that the issue of compliance with the CBD had been intensively discussed at the 9th Conference of the Parties (COP-9) of the CBD in Bonn, Germany in May 2008 and would continue to be tackled at COP-10 to be held in 2010. He also informed the Council that the WIPO IGC had addressed the interface between intellectual property and genetic resources or related traditional knowledge. He said that discussion in the WTO should take account of those exercises. He said that, since intellectual property was an essential tool for technology transfer, knowledge dissemination and profit gains for benefit sharing, it was definitely complementary to the CBD objectives. The proposal of a mandatory disclosure requirement should be carefully examined taking into due consideration the adverse impact it might have on intellectual property systems, patent applicants and overall innovative activities. He further said that the issues of TRIPS/CBD and GI extension should be discussed individually on their own merits.
