Publication of the week: Dr Patricia Covarrubia

2 February 2015

Patricia Covarrubia, “Genetic resources and the debate over legacy: Chilean constitutional reform”, European Intellectual Property Review 2015, 37(1), 1-3

This article examines a bill being considered by the Chilean Parliament to amend the Constitution of Chile [Art.19] in order to:

  1. assert ownership over the country’s genetic resources
  2. protect against the unauthorised use of these resources or the traditional knowledge (TK) of indigenous communities
  3. promote the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the exploitation of these resources or TK.

Dr Covrarrubia compares these measures with the relevant international law framework.

The full text of the article is available on University computers via Westlaw.

Dr Patricia Covarrubia is Lecturer in Law at The University of Buckingham and manager/blogger in IP Tango (Intellectual Property weblog – Latin America). Her research interests include geographical indications and indications of origin, compulsory licences in the pharmaceutical industry, domain names, and the protection of traditional knowledge. She is the author of Chemical Sense Marks: Frequent concerns when applying for trade mark registration at the OHIM (Saarbrücken: VDM Publishing, 2011).