Relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity – summary of issues and points raised (IP/C/W/368/Rev.1 and Corr.1). It shall examine the relevant information submitted to the TRIPS Council on three items on its agenda: the revision of the provisions of Article 27(3)(b); the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity; and the protection of traditional knowledge and folklore. It contains all relevant documents submitted to the Council from 1999 to 1996. In addition, the issue of the patentability of genetic materials and the Convention on Biological Diversity will be addressed. The TRIPS Agreement excluded plants and animals from patentability, while retaining `micro-organisms` and `microbiological` processes for the production of plants or animals under the same patent regime. This step has emptied the sui generis system of its quintessence and threatened small farmers, whose practice of saving, sharing and/ or replanting seeds is engraved in a long and intergenerational tradition. More importantly, smallholder farmers who represent the primary labour force in developing countries are under greater threat than ever, especially at a time when extraterritorial patent protection is being implemented and monitored under the TRIPS Agreement. Article 27(3)(b) of the TRIPS Agreement deals with the patentability or non-patentability of plant and animal inventions and the protection of plant varieties. Overall, the TRIPS Agreement stipulates that any invention, whether a product or a process, may be patented in all areas of technology, provided that it is new, inventive and inventive and can be technically reintroduced. . .
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