close Video Drone invented to help cut costs, more efficiently care for crops Hylio Drones founder Arthur Erickson on how his drone helps farmers The UN member countries have sealed a treaty aimed at properly tracing traditional knowledge about genetic resources. The treaty marks the first time all 193 member states of the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization have agreed on patent protection for cultural knowledge. The treaty requires patent applicants to specify the sources of their product ideas.
U.N. member countries on Friday concluded a new treaty to help ensure that traditional knowledge about genetic resources, like medicines derived from exotic plants in the Andes mountains, is properly traced.
It marks the first time the 193 member states of the U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization have reached agreement on patent protections about historic knowledge from indigenous cultures, which have long been exploited by colonists, traders and others.
The treaty doesn’t address compensation to indigenous communities for their historic expertise about products drawn from things like from tropical plants. WILD ORANGUTAN IN INDONESIA APPEARS TO USE MEDICINAL PLANT TO DISINFECT WOUND: 'LIKELY SELF-MEDICATION' But the accord is seen as an important first step. It requires patent applicants, like foreign entrepreneurs or international companies, to specify where they got ideas about what goes into their products, especially inputs drawn from the knowledge of in.
