A patent is the right granted by a government to an inventor to prevent other from commercial use of his invention. A patent is granted for (a) an invention, (b) an improvement in an earlier invention, (c) the process of generating a product, (d) a concept or design.
Biopatent is the patent granted for biological entities and for products derived from them. Biopatents are awarded for (i) strains of microorganisms (ii) cell lines (iii) genetically modified strains of plants and animals (iv) DNA sequences, (v) the proteins encoded by DNA sequences (vi) various biotechnological procedures, (vii) production processes (viii) products and (ix) product applications.
Many biopatents are very broad in their coverage i.e., one patent covers all transgenic plants of Brassica family. Such broad patents are considered morally unacceptable and fundamentally inequitable, since these would enable financially powerful corporation to acquire monopoly control over biotechnological processes.
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It is the exploitation of bioresources of a country by organisations and multinationals for commercial exploitation with or without patent but without any Access and Benefit sharing agreement (ABA).
Biological resources or bioresources include all those organisms that can be used to derive commercial benefits.
Traditional knowledge related to bioresources is the knowledge developed by various communities over long period of history, regarding the utilization of the bioresources e.g., use of herbs etc as drugs. Traditional knowledge helps in saving time, effort and expenditure in developing refined product for commercialisaton.
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Based on the traditional knowledge, institution and companies of industrialized nations are collecting and exploiting bioresources of other nations by getting them patented.
1. A patent granted in USA covers the entire ‘basmati’ rice germplasm indigenous to our country.
2. The bioresources are being analysed for identification of valuable biomolecules (compound produced by a living organism). The useful biomolecules are got patented.
3. Useful genes from the bioresources are isolated, patented and commercialised.
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4. Traditional knowledge is used to get a bioresource patented.
Bioresources of the developing world have always been commercially exploited by the industrialized nations without an adequate compensation to the developing world. Some nations are developing comprehensive laws to prevent unauthorised exploitation of their bioresources and traditional knowledge.