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A three-day "Workshop on Biodiversity and Intellectual Property Regime", was organised jointly with World Conservation Union (IUCN), Geneva, and Kalpavriksh, Pune by RIS in New Delhi on 29-31 January 1999. Gathering about 70 academics, activists, researchers, NGO representatives, government officials, and representatives of industry from India, together with a number of participants from other South Asian countries, Europe and the USA, the workshop focused, in particular, on conflict and complementarily between the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on the one hand, and the elements of the international intellectual property regime (and especially the WTO TRIPs agreement) on the other. The workshop sought to identify actions that may be taken in the forums of CBD or WTO, and in the national context within India and other South Asian countries, that would further the objectives of the CBD through full use of spaces within existing IPR regimes, through further development and adaptation of these or, where necessary, through creation of new regimes. Dr. Biswajit Dhar and Dr. Sachin Chaturvedi of RIS presented a theme paper on "TRIPs and Biodiversity". The recommendations of the workshop have been brought out for wider dissemination. |
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