As part of the Capacity Building Project on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and Sustainable Development, implemented by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), a research paper entitled "The genetic use restriction technologies, intellectual property rights and sustainable development in Eastern and Southern Africa", has just been published by P. Kameri-Mbote and J. Otieno-Odek. Produced in collaboration with the Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa, the 47-page paper examines the interface between GURTs and IPRs on sustainable use of agro-biodiversity and food security. See http://www.iprsonline.org/resources/docs/Gurtz%20paper%20final.doc (227 KB). As part of the same project, "Exceptions to patent rights in developing countries" by C. Garrison is now also available, a paper (92 pages) which discusses, inter alia, exceptions to patent rights for the case of plant varieties (section 4.11). See http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/iteipc200612_en.pdf (990 KB) or contact [email protected] for more information.

04/10/2006