From the Shaman's hut to the patent office : In search of a TRIPS-consistent requirement to disclose the origin of genetic resources and prior informed consent.

I. Introduction; II. The objective and nature of the requirement; III. the requirement as a condition of validity of intellectual property rights and applicable international law; IV. In search of a solution for adopting the requirement without unduly burdening the patent system and/or infringing international law; V. A world of caution: the limited value of the requirement; VI. Conclusion: patents are certificates of inventive behavior, not good behavior.