65. The representative of the United States said that, as several delegations had noted, there had been a lull in the consultations on the three issues, namely, the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD, and review of Article 27.3(b), and the protection of traditional knowledge and folklore. Though work on those issues had been dormant, some activities had been undertaken or planned, such as the symposium organized by the Government of Indonesia on defensive measures (databases) scheduled for that week. She looked forward to a briefing on that discussion at the next Council meeting.
66. In addition, WIPO members had achieved some significant work at a recent meeting of the IGC focussing on traditional knowledge. At its meeting of 16-20 April 2012, they had discussed objectives and principles, along with a possible text for a document to address the protection of traditional knowledge.
67. Much work, however, was needed to develop a common understanding of the objective of protecting traditional knowledge and the principles underlying the desired objective. For instance, if an objective of the protection of traditional knowledge was to provide an incentive to preserve and maintain that knowledge, was there a better way to ensure that the knowledge was not lost? How could traditional knowledge be distinguished from other knowledge, particularly knowledge that was understood to be part of the common heritage of mankind?
68. Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provided that: "(1) everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits; (2) everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author." Those two paragraphs were understood to represent the view that an author had rights, as provided for in copyright and patent systems, but those rights coincided with the larger communities' right to benefit from the arts and scientific works. More work was still needed to gain an understanding of how a new exclusive right on the protection of traditional knowledge would fit within these two classes of rights recognized by the Declaration.
69. The IGC would continue its work later that month focussing on traditional cultural expressions. In the context of that work, the IGC still needed, in her view, to discuss in detail the objective and underlying principles. It also needed to analyze the effect that any new protections would have upon the rights enshrined in Article 27 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
