Biopiracy and Patents

Biopiracy refers to the practice of individuals, companies, or institutions -- typically based in economically developed countries -- using the biological resources (such as native plant or animal species) or the traditional knowledge (accumulated over generations by local or indigenous communities) of another country or community, without proper authorisation, without adequately compensating the country or community that developed and preserved that resource or knowledge, and often going on to claim patent rights over that resource or knowledge as if it were an original invention.

The concern raised by biopiracy is not that traditional bioresources or knowledge are being used at all, but rather that they are being used and commercially exploited without the informed consent of, and without fair benefit-sharing with, the community or country from which they originated -- treating knowledge and resources that were freely and openly used and developed by a community over a very long time as if they were newly 'discovered' or invented by the outside party claiming the patent.

India has been directly involved in several notable disputes of exactly this kind. In the well-known basmati rice case, an American company was granted a patent in the United States covering certain rice lines and grains, including some claims relating to characteristics associated with basmati rice, a distinctive aromatic long-grain rice variety that has been traditionally grown, and its unique characteristics developed, in the Indian subcontinent over a very long period. India formally contested the scope of this patent on the grounds that it wrongly claimed rights over traits and a rice type that were already part of India's traditional agricultural heritage, and the patent's original broad claims were substantially narrowed as a result of the challenge.

Two further, widely cited examples of the same underlying dispute involve turmeric and neem. A patent was granted in the United States covering the use of turmeric powder for wound healing, a use that had, in fact, already been part of well-documented traditional Indian medicinal knowledge for many generations; India successfully challenged this patent by presenting ancient textual and other documentary evidence of turmeric's long-established traditional use for exactly this purpose, and the patent was ultimately revoked. Similarly, a patent was granted in Europe covering a method of extracting and using neem oil as a fungicide, another use with a long history in traditional Indian agricultural and medicinal practice; this patent, too, was successfully challenged and eventually revoked after India presented evidence of neem's long-standing traditional use for pest and fungal control. …