What is biopiracy?
Biopiracy in Peru
Comment
Peru's biodiversity is one of the greatest in the world. For many years, the country has being fighting a problem that affects both the safety of its products and native and emblematic resources, and the ancestral knowledge of indigenous people: biopiracy.
"Biopiracy" is defined as the unauthorised, illegal and irregular access and use of biological resources and their components, or associated traditional knowledge, in the research and development of new products. An example of this practice is where a third party seeks to directly or indirectly appropriate such resources or knowledge through patents without the prior informed consent of either the country of origin of the resource or the indigenous people that hold the rights to the knowledge, respectively, and without providing any kind of compensation.
The National Commission Against Biopiracy – created on 1 May 2004 and chaired by the National Institute for the Defence of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property – is the institution in charge of the promotion, protection and defence of biological resources and traditional knowledge in Peru. So far, the commission has identified 33 cases of biopiracy relating to biological resources of Peruvian origin, 18 of which have been resolved favourably.
According to the commission, Peru has 4,400 native vegetable species, 1,200 of which have medical uses. It is thus unsurprising that most biopiracy cases globally are related to patent applications of pharmaceutical compositions.
It is not possible for any country to patent a plant or vegetable species, because such species are natural and humankind has merely discovered them. However, if they are manipulated or, after an investigation, certain special properties are discovered, protection (eg, through patents or plant variety rights) is possible.
Since ancient times, native and indigenous people of Peru have known how to take advantage of the various medicinal properties of vegetable species. This knowledge has been transmitted from generation to generation and enriched over the years. For pharmaceutical companies, this traditional knowledge can result in huge savings in research and investment because they can use it to establish which species are most useful and which can be developed into new medicines.
Biopiracy is not unique to Peru – recent cases have also been seen in the Philippines, China and Japan. These cases, among others, evidence the seriousness of the problem. Biopiracy leads to patents becoming an illegal method of exploiting the natural resources that are part of another country's culture, when they should be a legal way to protect an earned right as the result of hard work and research.
The traditional knowledge owned by indigenous peoples is a form of human creativity that should have the same level of recognition and protection as other IP objects. This does not mean that the use of such knowledge should be forbidden – it can be a valuable contribution to science. However, its use must be legal and benefit the sustainable development of both the country of origin and, in particular, the indigenous people concerned.
For further information on this topic please contact Kelly Sánchez at OMC Abogados & Consultores by telephone (+51 1 628 1238) or email ([email protected]). The OMC Abogados & Consultores website can be accessed at omcabogados.com.pe.
