70. The representative of Norway said that her delegation continued to believe that measures should be introduced in the patent system to make it supportive of the provisions in the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol. She considered that the single most important measure that could be introduced to ensure that the rights related to genetic resources and traditional knowledge were safeguarded within the patent system was the mandatory disclosure requirement.
71. She recalled the proposal her delegation had submitted to the Council in 2006 to introduce such a requirement in the TRIPS Agreement. The topics covered by the agenda items had been debated in detail in the course of two sessions of the IGC held earlier that year. At the IGC, Norway had put forward detailed proposals on how a mandatory disclosure requirement could be shaped. Measures other than the mandatory disclosure requirement should also be introduced to make the patent system supportive of the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol. She also recalled the proposal for a joint recommendation on genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge put forward by the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea and Norway at the 20th session of the IGC. She added that the various possible measures should be complementary and not mutually exclusive.
72. Her delegation considered that the IGC was the appropriate forum for a detailed discussion on the topics covered by the agenda items at hand and that the work in the Council should be of a complementary nature. She said that the issue of the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol remained of great importance and added that the topics being discussed under those agenda items should therefore still be on the agenda in the forum.
