Genetic Resources Information Center (GRIC) of NIBR announced that it signed MOU with Korea Patent Attorney Association (KPAA) and 5 government agencies to launch “ABS legal support team”. The MOU ceremony was held in Seoul on 3 April 2019. 

The 5 government agencies are Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Health and Welfare and Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The 5 ministries and KPAA will jointly run the ABS legal support team consisting of legal experts in the field of intellectual property rights, especially patents.

Since the Nagoya Protocol entered into force in Korea in August 2017, the number of consultations on ABS has increased and the overall questions and contents of the consultations have become intensified and complicated. That’s why GRIC and the 5 ministries decided to launch interagency ABS legal support team.

The team will provide ABS consultations regarding overseas ABS legislations and regulations, implementation procedures, protection of intellectual property rights, ABS negotiation methods, and so on.  

Lee Jae Hoon, the Head of GRIC said: “In collaboration with the ABS legal support team, we will make efforts to meet the needs of Korean biotech companies by providing them legal consultations and nurturing ABS experts so that Korean companies that use biological resources home and abroad can do their business in harmony with ABS compliance.”