In October 2015 the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) renewed the mandate of the the Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (GRTKF):
The Committee will, during the next budgetary biennium 2016/2017, continue to expedite its work, with a focus on narrowing existing gaps, with open and full engagement, including text-based negotiations, with the objective of reaching an agreement on an international legal instrument(s), without prejudging the nature of outcome(s), relating to intellectual property which will ensure the balanced and effective protection of genetic resources (GRs), traditional knowledge (TK) and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs).
(b) The Committee’s work in the 2016/2017 biennium will build on the existing work carried out by the Committee with a primary focus on reaching a common understanding on core issues, including definition of misappropriation, beneficiaries, subject matter, objectives, and what TK/TCEs subject matter is entitled to protection at an international level, including consideration of exceptions and limitations and the relationship with the public domain.
The remit of IGC30 (30 May 2016 – 3 June 2016) is to “[u]ndertake negotiations on [genetic resources] GRs with a focus on addressing unresolved issues” and to consider “options for a draft legal instrument.” After a day and a half of informal negotiations, on Wednesday, the International Bureau distributed the facilitators’ text (Rev. 1) in two forms: 1) a clean text and 2) a text with track changes.