• Encouraged the Congress and Executive Branch to oppose any attempts by foreign governments to negotiate new international agreements or to amend existing intellectual property agreements in the WTO and WIPO to weaken patent protection for biotechnology inventions. Encouraged the Congress and the Executive Branch to oppose the inclusion of genetic source disclosure requirements for the patenting of biotechnology inventions in any ABS regime negotiated in the CBD.

Duration: November 1, 2007 to March 25, 2008

General Issues: Trade (Domestic & Foreign)

Spending: about $20,000 (But it's complicated. Here's why.)

It can be tricky to figure out how much an organization spent on a particular lobbying engagement. The law only requires lobbyists to report the amount they were paid for federal lobbying each quarter rounded to the nearest $10,000—and if it's less than $3,000 in a given quarter (or less than $13,000 for organizations with in-house lobbyists), they don't have to disclose it at all. Plus, some organizations include spending that doesn’t belong in the report—for instance, money spent lobbying state governments or other legal work.

Agencies lobbied since 2007: U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), Patent & Trademark Office (PTO), State - Dept of (DOS), Commerce - Dept of (DOC), House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, Y Y US Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce Dept., State Dept.