UN countries adopt treaty to better trace origins of genetic resources under global patent system

GENEVA (AP) — U.N. member countries have concluded a new treaty to ensure that genetic resources used in inventions, like new medicines derived from exotic plants in the Andes mountains, are properly traced. It marks the first time the 193 member states of the U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization have agreed that patent applicants must disclose the origin of genetic resources used and traditional knowledge linked to them, which have long been exploited by colonists, traders and others. The treaty doesn’t address compensation for indigenous communities for their historic know-how about products drawn from things like tropical plants.