Date:26/08/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/08/26/stories/2005082601470700.htm

Back `Need to have legal framework for genetic resources, biopiracy'

Our Bureau

New Delhi , Aug. 25

THERE is a need to bring in provisions internationally that legally penalise acts of biopiracy, according to the Ministry of Environment Secretary, Dr Prodipto Ghosh.

"From a study, we found out that there has been a steady increase of patents granted by the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) on 119 medicinal plants. While, we are not sure how many of them were based on traditional knowledge; another study revealed that of about 760 patents granted based on seven plants, 360 clearly involved traditional knowledge," said Dr Ghosh, stressing the need to take steps to ensure protection of traditional knowledge.

Based on 119 medicinal plants, the USPTO issued 17,329 patents in 2000, 20,835 patents in 2002 and 23,956 patents in 2004. Speaking on the value of traditional knowledge, Dr Veena Jha, India Coordinator, UNCTAD (UN Conference on Trade and Agreement), said the existing systems of protection have been found to be inadequate to prevent misappropriation of traditional knowledge.

"If those who depend on traditional knowledge-derived products were deprived of them, the cost of replacing them through purchases of substitutes in the market would probably be quite high," Dr Jha said.

For example, an NGO estimates that in agriculture, germplasm held by the International Agricultural Research Centres contributes over $5 billion annually to developed country's crop production. Another estimate calculates that out of 119 plant-based compounds used in medicine worldwide, 74 per cent had same or related uses as the medicinal plants from which they were derived, she said.

One of the key requirements of a multilateral access and benefit sharing regime is that when intellectual property rights (IPRs) are granted involving these resources, they must be made contingent on letter of prior informed consent. IPRs must be cancelled if issued without disclosure of such use or wrongful disclosure, according to Dr Ghosh. He was speaking at a seminar on TRIPS-CBD issues at the WTO.

The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in 1992 did recognise that States have sovereign rights over their biological resources and traditional knowledge apart from providing a framework for access and benefit sharing for genetic resources and traditional knowledge.