The Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) released its report on the GRATK Treaty, or the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, and recommended that Australia take binding treaty action.

Adopted on May 24, 2024, at WIPO’s Geneva headquarters, the GRATK Treaty is the first WIPO treaty to address the intersection of IP, genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and to include provisions specifically for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. 

The objectives of the treaty, according to WIPO’s website, are “to enhance the efficacy, transparency and quality of the patent system with regard to genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources and prevent patents from being granted erroneously for inventions that are not novel or inventive with regard to genetic resources and associated TK.”

JSCOT has expressed its support for the treaty, which requires patent applicants to provide information on the source – the country of origin or the Indigenous Peoples or First Nations community – of any genetic resources or traditional knowledge used to create their invention. According to IP Australia’s website, this “would make use of these resources and knowledge more visible in the patent system.”

The treaty also requires member states to establish sanctions for failing to comply with this requirement as well as measures to address non-disclosure of sources.

“The current IP system has historically enabled the extraction and commercialization of Indigenous knowledge without attribution, consent, or benefit. Joining the GRATK Treaty would be part of capturing the truth in the patent record where genetic resources or traditional knowledge have been used. It says this invention came from somewhere and from someone. That is the baseline that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been denied for too long,” said Chrissy Grant, chair of the Indigenous Knowledge Panel.

JSCOT also recommends that the government consult First Nations peoples, the plant science industry and other relevant industry stakeholders.

- Espie Angelica A. de Leon