GENEVA: United Nations member states on Friday signed a new treaty to ensure that Genetic Resources Ingredients used in inventions such as new medicines can be reasonably traced to exotic plants obtained in the Andes Mountains.

This is the first time that 193 member countries of the United Nations world organization are participating together in this conference. Intellectual property The organization has agreed that patent applicants must disclose the origin of the genetic resources used and conventional wisdom They are linked to – often indigenous cultures that have long been exploited by colonists, traders and others.

For example, under this treaty companies in industries such as fashion, luxury goods and pharmaceuticals will have to specify the origin of plant-based chemicals used in medicines or skin creams for their innovative products. About 30 countries already have similar rules in their national regulations.

This treaty does not consider the complex issue of compensation. Indigenous communities for his historic — even ancient — expertise about things like tropical plants.

But the agreement is seen as an important first international step, requiring patent applicants such as foreign entrepreneurs or international companies to disclose where they got the ideas for what they want to include in their products.

The organisation’s director-general, Darren Tang, described it as a “historic” achievement – the first time the organisation has furloughed its staff. WIPO Treaty It’s the biggest change in more than a decade — and said delegates at the last conference, held over the past two weeks, “transcended the categories of north and south.”

“For the first time, the systems of knowledge and intelligence that have supported economies, societies and cultures for millennia are now inscribed in human history.” Global IP system”For the first time, the connection between the two has become clear,” Tang told attendees. Indigenous peopleLocal communities and their genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge are recognised by the global IP community.”

The WIPO Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Related Traditional Knowledge Treaty, reached through more than two decades of work, will enter into force as international law once it is ratified by 15 countries.

The agreement focuses on genetic resources such as medicinal plantsCrops obtained from farms and certain animal breeds. It will not be retroactive, meaning it will only apply to future discoveries, not past ones.

WIPO rules do not allow intellectual property protection of natural or genetic resources, but help protect inventions made by people that put those resources to use for humankind, whether historical or recent.