Wend Wendland: WIPO committee on Traditional Knowledge’s “process is broken.”

“Fresh ideas, pragmatism and strong leadership are needed to get the IGC out of the rut in which it finds itself now,” said Wend Wendland, a long time director the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) managing issues related to traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources. The IGC is WIPO’s committee tasked with the management of this issues. He was speaking at the 3 December 2025 launch of the Geneva Centre on Knowledge Governance, which also doubled as a launch for his new book “The Journey to the WIPO Treaty on Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge.”