The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was established by a convention signed at Stockholm on July 14, 1967, which entered into force 1970. WIPO became a specialized agency in the United Nations system of organizations in 1974. WIPO’s purpose is to administer and promote the international protection of intellectual property (IP) through cooperation between member states. IP includes industrial property, chiefly in inventions and trademarks, and copyright. [1, 2]
In November 1999 a Working Group addressed IP in relation to the emerging biotechnology life sciences technologies, to manage “traditional knowledge” (TK) and “genetic resources”. “WIPO uses the term, “genetic resources” as it is defined by Article 2 of the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), that is, “genetic material of actual or potential value.”” [6]
By 2009 WIPO formed a trilateral cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), to help combat the Global Health problem due to “climate change” and, among other things, facilitate access to Medical Technologies Worldwide. In June 2021 that cooperation was “intensified” to “support of access to medical technologies worldwide to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic”. [3]
Then on May 24, 2024 WIPO Member States adopted a “Historic New Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge”, an international legal instrument. [4, 5]