ABSTRACT
In 2000, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assembly established the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC). The first GRULAC document, Traditional Knowledge and the Need to Give it Adequate Intellectual Property Protection, outlined the objectives of 'an intellectual property system for traditional knowledge and associated innovations and practices'. While the statements made by countries during the Twenty-Sixth WIPO General Assembly, in which the proposal for the IGC's creation was approved, showed broad support for the proposal, the contrast between the way it was expressed by developed and developing countries was glaring. The recommendations emerging from some of the regional consultations organized by WIPO prior to the IGC's creation clearly called for the establishment of a Standing Committee. At the time of the IGC's creation, it was not clear how this participation would take shape and how it would impact the Committee's work.
