Zeitschrift für Zivil- und Rechtswissenschaften

Abstrakt

Disclosure requirement of origins in patent law: the pros and cons of the "layer" between patents and genetic resources and traditional knowledge

Zhengyuan Liao

The sharing of benefit arising from utilization of genetic resources and traditional knowledge has been concerned by countries particularly the developing countries which hold amounts of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Since the CBD was signed in 1992, countries have adopted and provided various methods to facilitate the compliance of the access-benefit sharing system, prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms, including introducing disclosure requirement of origins into patent law. The disclosure requirement of origins requires the patent applicant to present the origins of the material if the invention includes the materials which are subject to ABS regulations set up by the CBD. Today, there are considerable countries which adopted the disclosure requirement of origins into patent law or any other ABS legislations/regulations. This study aims to analyse the disclosure requirement of origin in the context of present concerns of equitable and fair benefit sharing of genetic resources and traditional knowledge to address whether the disclosure requirement of origins can facilitate the equitable and fair benefit sharing and provide aims for countries to monitor the compliance of ABS legislation. This study will assess the disclosure requirement of origins in practical perspective and legal perspective. The insufficient parts of the disclosure requirement will be pointed out and suggestion will be given to improve the disclosure requirement in the final part.