The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presents his compliments to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and has the honor to notify the deposit by the Government of the Republic of Colombia, on April 26, 2016, of its instrument of accession to the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure, done at Budapest on April 28, 1977, and amended on September 26, 1980.
The said instrument contained the following declaration:
"The Republic of Colombia declares, having regard to Article 3(1)(a) and Article 5 of the Budapest Treaty, that access to biological material whose deposit is regulated by this Treaty, that the removal of such material from the national territory, and that recognition of the respective patent shall be in accordance with the protection provided for by the Colombian Constitution, in particular at Articles 8, 58(2) and 330 thereof.
NOTING that the articles referred to in the above declaration: enshrine the duty of the Colombian State and of individuals to protect the cultural and natural heritage of the State (Art.8); establish property as a social utility and the ecological function inherent therein (Art.58); stipulate that the State is duty-bound to regulate the entry and exit of genetic resources and their use (Art.81); and enshrine the protection and regulation of indigenous territories, stipulating that the exploitation of natural resources in these territories shall not impair the cultural, social and economic integrity of indigenous communities (Art. 330);
NOTING that the above declaration does not affect the obligations and requirements of the instrument as regards the recognition and effects of the deposit of microorganisms with an international authority, and that the constitutional provisions to which the statement refers constitute duties of the Colombian State as sovereign and as protector of national heritage, which are not incompatible with the provisions of the Budapest Treaty;
CONSIDERING that Colombia already recognizes the deposit of a microorganism with an international depositary authority, in accordance with Decision No.486 of the Commission of the Andean Community, and with Resolution No.856 issued in 2014 by the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce of Colombia (Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio de Colombia);
DECLARES that the aforementioned interpretative declaration does not entail obligations, limitations or additional requirements that may affect matters covered in the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure and its Regulations."
The said Treaty will enter into force, with respect to the Republic of Colombia, on July 26, 2016.
April 26, 2016