69. The representative of Korea said that the review of Article 27.3(b) should be of a procedural nature and should not lead to a revision of the TRIPS Agreement. He did not subscribe to the idea of prohibiting the patenting of all life forms. Instead, he said that inventions in all fields of technology, including biotechnology, deserved to be incentivized through adequate patent protection. Given the huge potential benefits of biotechnology to all humankind, research and development in that field should be encouraged. His delegation did not support the proposal of introduction of a mandatory disclosure requirement, which would create legal uncertainties and would be too burdensome for patent applicants as well as for patent authorities. Further, it would not seem feasible to reach consensus among Members on a manageable definition of source and country of origin. Given the substantive progress made in the IGC, he said that the IGC was the right forum for further discussions. In addition, he was not convinced that the issues of TRIPS-CBD and GI should be discussed in parallel, as they were completely unrelated to each other and should not be linked in any form in the discussion.
