Question

Write a short note on bio-piracy.

Answer 1

Hint: Bio-piracy is an illegal method of presenting authorised work representing it as self work on commercial scale.

Complete Answer:
- Biopiracy can be called as cheating or copying or unauthorized activities that are practiced by companies and exhibiting it as their own work. Biopiracy represents the intellectual property of the creator that is used unauthorizedly.
A) The first and very popular case of biopiracy is turmeric patent. India is well known for its ancient culture and traditions. These are passed on from one generation to the next generation.
- Turmeric is a popular and essential spice used everywhere in India. It not only has medicinal properties but is also known to heal wounds.
- Two Indian scientists studied the use of turmeric in wound healing at University of Mississippi medical center for wound healing.
- In 1995 the United States granted a patent on this turmeric project. But since the turmeric was already used for wound healing in India, this project was considered as biopracy.
- The India Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) objected to the patent grant and provided evidence of prior art on turmeric. So, the patent grant by the US was declined.

B) The second case was regarding basmati patents. The patent was granted by the US office to 'RiceTec' for a strain of Basmati rice.
- Rice is staple food for most of the parts of Asia. Basmati rice is a well known strain used in biryanis in India and Pakistan. The Indian Government appealed 3 claims out of 20 claims.
- The 3 claims were challenged for certain characteristics of Basmati. Hence these claims were removed from the original patent.

Note: Other biopiracy includes Biopiracy of African super-sweet berries, Neem patent, Bt brinjal dispute, etc.