22. The representative of Brazil supported negotiations on the draft modalities for the three TRIPS related issues as proposed in document TN/C/W/52. He said that 108 Members, over two thirds of the WTO membership, had made a significant effort to approximate their positions and to put forward a balanced and reasonable proposal. He expressed his delegation's disappointment that a few Members retained their positions without showing any willingness to bring their positions closer to what had been proposed by the large majority of the WTO membership. He reiterated that the disclosure requirement would promote a mutually supportive implementation of the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD. The disclosure requirement would provide mega-diverse developing and developed countries with information with regard to the invention that was derived from or was developed with genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge. It would enable developing countries to benefit from the sustainable exploitation of their biodiversity and to make conservation of genetic resources a commercially attractive activity. He said that the disclosure requirement was a major development component of the Doha Round and an agreement on the disclosure requirement would respond to a major demand of developing countries within the Doha Development Round.
23. He said that, during the Uruguay Round, developing countries had made a great concession by accepting the TRIPS Agreement and therefore it was now necessary to amend the TRIPS Agreement to respond to the demand of developing countries. The TRIPS Agreement required developing countries to protect innovations, technologies and cultural products, the production of which was virtually monopolized by developed countries. Genetic resources and traditional knowledge were, to a large extent, the only intangible asset held by developing countries. The disclosure requirement would increase the legitimacy of patent systems and widen the participation of developing countries in the system by enabling them to protect and benefit from the intangible asset held by themselves. He said that the disclosure requirement would also increase the efficiency of the patent system. Under the patent system, an inventor enjoyed patent protection for his invention, and in return he should disclose his invention to the society. The disclosure requirement was in harmony with the objective of the patent system because it strengthened the patent system's capacity to disclose relevant information to the society and patent examiners. In other words, the disclosure requirement could help to avoid the granting of erroneous patents and misappropriation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. He said that many countries, both developing and developed countries, had adopted or were in the process of adopting their own legislation on the disclosure requirement. The industry needed an international legal framework that would provide predictability and encourage investment in the biotechnology field. The only way for bringing about such an international legal framework was to introduce the disclosure requirement into the TRIPS Agreement and set out a commonly agreed international standard on the disclosure requirement.
