On Wednesday, 4 December 2024, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) delivered this statement on Article 6 – Administration of [rights/interests] at the 49th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore.
In relation to Article 6 on the administration of rights in the TCE text, KEI suggests the insertion of a new paragraph 3 which would read as follows:
ARTICLE 6.3 – Administration of [rights/interests]
“The management of the financial aspects of the rights should be subject to transparency concerning the sources and amounts of money collected, the expenditures if any to administer the rights, and the distribution of money to beneficiaries.”
We would note that this language was previously supported by two Member States as recorded in the Secretariat’s report of the 17th session of the IGC in document WIPO/GRTKF/IC/17/12 on pages 31, 32, and 48.
Background
WIPO/GRTKF/IC/17/12
178. The representative of KEI suggested the following language in a new paragraph 3 as follows: “The management of the financial aspects of the rights should be subject to transparency, concerning the sources and amounts of money collected, the expenditures, if any, to administer the rights, and the distribution of money to beneficiaries.
186. The Delegation of South Africa opposed the suggestion made by the Delegation of the EU and its Member States regarding the addition of a new paragraph 3 that created, in its view, an unnecessary burden on the beneficiaries. It expressed instead a preference for the alternative suggestion made by the representative of KEI. Regarding the suggestion made by the representative of LCA on the creation of databases, it stated that while it recognized that databases might be necessary to manage the rights, the Committee should limit these kinds of new inputs or exercise caution in constructing those in order not to create new burdens on the beneficiaries.
187. The Delegation of USA joined the Delegation of South Africa by endorsing the proposal made by the representative of KEI regarding a new paragraph 3.
332. Following the work of the informal drafting group, is Rapporteur (Ms. Kim Connely-Stone, New Zealand) presented the following Report to Committee [Note from Secretariat: The draft articles are annexed to this report as Annex II]:
Article 4 – Management of Rights
21. The Drafting Group considered the two additions that had been proposed in the plenary (issue 4(a) in the indicative list of issues). These were paragraph 3, which proposed that competent authorities report to WIPO each year, and paragraph 4 (proposed by the representative of KEI and endorsed by the Delegation of the United States of America), which provided that the management of the financial aspects of rights should be transparent. In response to the question in the indicative list of issues, there was no agreement to delete either proposal, so both remained in the document to be discussed by the Committee at a later stage.