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87 J. Pat. & Trademark Off. Soc'y 525 (2005)
Access to Genetic Resources and Equitable Benefit Sharing through a New Disclosure Requirement in the Patent System: An Issue in Search of a Forum

handle is hein.journals/jpatos87 and id is 527 raw text is: Access to Genetic Resources and Equitable Benefit Sharing Through a New Disclosure Requirement in the Patent System: An Issue in Search of a Forum Dominic Keating* I. INTRODUCTION/ GENESIS OF A NEW DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENT A ccording to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a successful Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) may reduce the number of poor in developing countries by 300 million by 2015 and may create a $2.8 trillion increase in global income over the next ten years.' The Doha round is scheduled to conclude by the end of 2005, although it is likely to exceed that deadline. Access to genetic resources and equitable benefit sharing (ABS) through a new disclosure requirement in the patent laws (new disclosure requirement) is one of the pivotal issues in the round for many developing countries. The majority of WTO Member States are seeking to facilitate ABS through a new disclosure requirement, without regard for its harmful potential. According to the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), a disclosure requirement that could block the grant of a patent for an otherwise eligible invention, or could be used to invalidate that patent, (would) create unacceptable * Dominic Keating is a Patent Attorney in the Office of International Relations at the USPTO. The views contained herein are personal to the author, and do not necessarily represent those of the United States Government. The author thanks Jayashree Watal of the World Trade Organization and Shakeel Bhatti of the World Intellectual Property Organization for their assistance and support. 1 WTO Director-General Mike Moore's Informal End of the Year Message to Member Governments and his proposals for action in 2002. See <www.wto.org/english/news-e/pres0le/pr265_e.htm>. 525