48. The representative of Australia reiterated that his delegation remained unconvinced that there was necessarily a conflict between the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD and continued to believe that the two agreements could be implemented in a mutually supportive manner. His delegation also remained unconvinced of the need for text-based negotiations on amendments to the TRIPS Agreement. As a country with a megabiodiverse mass and unique indigenous culture, Australia was well aware of the importance of the issues surrounding access to biological resources and traditional knowledge, but these were complex issues and international discussions were still progressing in other forums, including in WIPO. He said that the Council should further consider the extensive work being undertaken in WIPO on these issues before moving to negotiations. He agreed that the equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetic resources and traditional knowledge was important. However, his delegation was still uncertain about the efficacy of a TRIPS amendment as a mechanism for ensuring compliance with national access and benefit-sharing and prior informed consent regimes as national patent disclosure requirements had only been introduced recently and only in a small number of countries, making their effectiveness difficult to gauge at this point in time. His delegation would be interested in learning more about national experiences.
49. He said that his delegation remained concerned about the implications of a mandatory disclosure requirement for the integrity of the patent system: its impact on users, on the administrative capacity of patent offices and, in particular, the potential impact of remedies for false disclosure or non-disclosure that would involve discontinuance of patent applications or the invalidation of patents, the administrative and technical cost of patent offices to assess compliance with foreign access and benefit-sharing and prior informed consent regimes if this was an element of a disclosure requirement, and additional costs to users during the patent application process. He reiterated that Australia would prefer to consider the efficacy and design of possible patent disclosure requirements in relationship to genetic resources and traditional knowledge in more detail before commencing discussions of proposals for amendment to the TRIPS Agreement. He also encouraged further explanation of the use of databases as a means of improving information provided to patent offices as put forward by Japan.
