WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge. And the Patent Cooperation Treaty

Biopiracy is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as: “the unethical or unlawful appropriation or commercial exploitation of biological materials (such as medicinal plant extracts) that are native to a particular country or territory without providing fair financial compensation to the people or government of that country or territory.”

Several international treaties have been adopted to act against this harmful activity, amongst them the following:

• ILO Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (27 June 1989)

• The Convention on Biological Diversity (29 December 1993)

• International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (3 November 2001)

• UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) (13 September 2007)

• The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing ​(12 October 2014)

In the Industrial Property field international treaties dealing with this activity are:

• TRIPS Agreement (15 April 1994)
• Andean Community Decision No. 391 Establishing Common Regime on Access to Genetic Resources (17 July 1996)​

• Patent Law Treaty (1 June 2000)

More recently, after two weeks of negotiations, the Diplomatic Conference adopted, on May 24, 2024, WIPO’s GRATK Treaty by consensus, and it will come into force three months after there have been 15 ratifications and accessions.

So far, the Republic of Malawi on December 5, 2024, and the Republic of Uganda on July 9, 2025, deposited the instrument of ratification of the Treaty.

The Treaty aims to prevent patents from being granted erroneously for inventions that are not novel or inventive regarding genetic resources and associated with TK.

The Treaty establishes a mandatory patent disclosure requirement – this requires patent applicants to disclose the country of origin of the genetic resources and/or the Indigenous Peoples or local community providing the associated TK, if the claimed inventions are ‘based on’ genetic resources and/or associated TK. If such information is unknown, the source of the genetic resources or associated TK should be disclosed. If none of the above information is known, the patent applicant would be required to declare so. Patent offices should provide certain guidance, though they would have no obligation to verify the authenticity of the disclosure.

A failure to disclose the required information would be subject to appropriate, effective, and proportionate measures. Patent applicants would have the opportunity to rectify a failure to disclose the required information unless there has been fraudulent conduct or intent. Where there has been fraudulent intent regarding the disclosure requirement, post-grant sanctions or remedies may be provided for. Fraud aside, no Party to the Treaty should revoke, invalidate, or render unenforceable a patent solely based on an applicant’s failure to disclose the required information.

The Treaty will be implemented in a mutually supportive manner with other international agreements, such as the PCT. Treaty Article 7, footnote 4:

The Contracting Parties request the Assembly of the International Patent Cooperation Union to consider the need for amendments to the Regulations under the PCT and/or the Administrative Instructions thereunder with a view towards providing an opportunity for applicants who file an international application under the PCT designating a PCT Contracting State which, under its applicable national law, requires the disclosure of genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, to comply with any formality requirements related to such disclosure requirement either upon filing of the international application, with effect for all such Contracting States, or subsequently, upon entry into the national phase before an Office of any such Contracting State. 

Although the PCT Treaty and Regulations have not been amended yet, International Searching Authorities have access to traditional knowledge journals included in the PCT Minimum Documentation, which is an essential collection of published patents and scientific literature that WIPO requires International Searching Authorities to search to find prior art for novelty and inventiveness regarding PCT applications.

Besides, the EPO’s non-patent literature (NPL) and standards documentation collections include 445,995 traditional knowledge documents.

Before the adoption of the Treaty some national and regional IP Laws required mandatory genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge disclosure requirements. The following link lists those national and regional IP Laws. https://www.wipo.int/documents/d/traditional-knowledge/docs-en-genetic_resources_disclosure.pdf

The materials found above show that some early steps have been taken to adopt the mandatory disclosure provision of the GRATK Treaty.

As of this date the following countries have created traditional knowledge journals/collections aimed at protecting their genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, and avoiding its misappropriation.

Some of these collections are:

• Peru: Portal de Conocimientos Tradicionales de los Pueblos Indígenas – CTPI https://servicio.indecopi.gob.pe/portalctpi/DetLegislacion.jsp?lng=2&pIdTc=6&pIdCat=5 “Traditional Knowledge Portal of Indigenous Peoples

• Brazil: SisGen (National System for the Management of Genetic Heritage and Associated Traditional Knowledge)

• Venezuela: BIOZULUA https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1123720/

The road ahead is:

• GRATK Treaty ratification by thirteen countries allowing it to enter into force.

• Creation of national collections/journals of Genetic Resources and associated traditional knowledge.

• Add to the PCT Minimum Documentation the national collections of Genetic Resources and associated traditional knowledge.

• Amend the PCT Regulations making mandatory the disclosure of the origin of Genetic Resources and associated traditional knowledge at the time of entering the international phase of the national/regional phase.

WIPO’s list of countries that already enforce the mandatory disclosure of the origin of genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge is large enough to meet the number of countries that have to ratify the GRATK Treaty.

 This is a global challenge.