Biopiracy
Topic: International Trade Policy, WTO and Intellectual Property · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Biopiracy means a firm makes money from biological resources or traditional knowledge without the consent of the people who hold them. Often the firm patents that knowledge and shares no benefit with the source community. It matters because knowledge that communities have used for centuries can end up owned by someone else. India's main defence is the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL, 2001). This database was built by CSIR and AYUSH. It shows patent offices that such knowledge already exists as prior art (earlier public knowledge), so the "invention" is not new.
Example
In the 1990s, a US patent was granted on using turmeric to heal wounds, a practice long known in Indian homes. CSIR challenged it, and the US patent office (USPTO) cancelled the patent in 1997. Similar fights followed over neem, where the European Patent Office revoked a fungicide patent (2000, upheld 2005), and over basmati. RiceTec's 1997 US patent covered basmati rice, and its key claims were withdrawn in 2001.
Don't confuse with
- Access and benefit sharing (ABS): ABS is the legal system of consent and benefit sharing. Biopiracy is the misuse that happens when that system is ignored.
Related concepts
- Copyright
- Trademark
- Industrial design
- Trade secret
- Layout-design of integrated circuits
- Geographical indication
- Plant variety protection
- Farmers' rights
- Access and benefit sharing