It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Bioprospecting. (Discuss) Biopiracy refers to the appropriation, generally by means of patents, of indigenous biomedical knowledge by foreign entities (including corporations, universities and governments) without compensatory payment.[1] The classic case is that of the Rosy Periwinkle (Madagascar Periwinkle), a plant native to Madagascar. [2] Research into the plant was prompted by the plant's traditional medicinal role and resulted in the discovery of a large number of biologically active chemicals, including the children's cancer cure vincristine. Vincristine is both highly effective in curing children's cancer and, as a result, an unusually lucrative drug. Vincristine was initially patented and marketed by Eli Lilly. It is widely reported that the country of origin did not receive any payment.[3] Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Bioprospecting is the collecting and testing of biological samples (plants, animals, micro-organisms) and the collecting of indigenous knowledge to help in discovering and exploiting genetic or biochemical resources Bioprospecting has primarily economic purposes (e. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 119 KB)Flower of Catharanthus roseus Taken on August 14, 2005 by Flickr user titanium22, released by him under Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 2. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 119 KB)Flower of Catharanthus roseus Taken on August 14, 2005 by Flickr user titanium22, released by him under Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 2. ...
A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to an inventor or applicant for a limited amount of time (normally maximum 20 years from the filing date, depending on extension). ...
Indigenous knowledge is a term applied to knowledge held in specific cultures, world-wide. ...
A white Rosy Periwinkle flower The Rosy Periwinkle (catharanthus roseus) is a species of the Madagascar periwinkle genus in the apocynaceae and Kareen whoo go kareen!!ŹăĞĞfamily and is native to Madagascar. ...
Species Catharanthus coriaceus Catharanthus lanceus Catharanthus longifolius Catharanthus ovalis Catharanthus pusillus Catharanthus roseus Catharanthus scitulus Catharanthus trichophyllus Madagascar Periwinkle (Catharanthus) is a genus of eight species of herbaceous perennial plants, seven endemic to the island of Madagascar, the eighth, , from Sri Lanka. ...
Vincristine (Oncovin®) is an alkaloid from the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus, formerly Vinca rosea and hence its name). ...
One of the worlds largest corporations, Eli Lilly and Company NYSE: LLY is a global pharmaceutical company. ...
Biopiracy is also used to cover the various forms of power imbalance between richer and poorer countries which arise out of poorer countries' tendencies towards high biodiversity and richer countries' tendencies towards needing or wanting the benefits of that high biodiversity. As debate on biopiracy has established itself, so too have pharmaceutical companies and national governments modified their behaviour in response to the debate, leading to a proliferation of related ethical issues and dilemmas. While not strictly "piratical" themselves, nevertheless debate on these related issues is subsumed under the title "biopiracy". Rainforests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth Biodiversity or biological diversity is the diversity of life. ...
Rainforests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth Biodiversity or biological diversity is the diversity of life. ...
Bioprospecting. Biopiracy is a value-laden term which at the same time has established itself as the primary concept in academic ethical debate on the subject. The term "bioprospecting" is a frequent alternative neutral or positive term. For political correctness, the combination "biopiracy and bioprospecting" can be used. While biopiracy and bioprospecting are easily defined in terms of each other (biopiracy is illegal or unethical bioprospecting; bioprospecting is legalised or ethical biopiracy), a United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies report stated in 2005 that there was no agreed definition of bioprospecting.[4] Bioprospecting is the collecting and testing of biological samples (plants, animals, micro-organisms) and the collecting of indigenous knowledge to help in discovering and exploiting genetic or biochemical resources Bioprospecting has primarily economic purposes (e. ...
Bioprospecting is the collecting and testing of biological samples (plants, animals, micro-organisms) and the collecting of indigenous knowledge to help in discovering and exploiting genetic or biochemical resources Bioprospecting has primarily economic purposes (e. ...
United Nations University (UNU) is a university established on December 6, 1973 by adoption of resolution 3081 by the United Nations General Assembly, upon the suggestion of U Thant, UN Secretary-General at the time. ...
Practical aspects of biopiracy and bioprospecting
The complexities of biopiracy - an example The classic Rosy Periwinkle case is a good example for how biopiracy cases are rarely as simple as they seem. Complicating factors include: Species Catharanthus coriaceus Catharanthus lanceus Catharanthus longifolius Catharanthus ovalis Catharanthus pusillus Catharanthus roseus Catharanthus scitulus Catharanthus trichophyllus Madagascar Periwinkle (Catharanthus) is a genus of eight species of herbaceous perennial plants, seven endemic to the island of Madagascar, the eighth, , from Sri Lanka. ...
- The Rosy Periwinkle, while native to Madagascar, had been widely introduced into other tropical countries around the world well before the discovery of vincristine. This meant that researchers could obtain local knowledge from one country and plant samples from another.
- The locally known medical properties of the plant were not the same as the medical properties discovered and commercially used by Eli Lilly. The use of the plant as a cure for diabetes was the original stimulus for research, but cures for cancer were the most important results.
- Different countries are reported as having acquired different beliefs about the medical properties of the plant.[5]
Vincristine (Oncovin®) is an alkaloid from the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus, formerly Vinca rosea and hence its name). ...
This article is about the disease that features high blood sugar. ...
Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis. ...
The role of bioprospecting in pharmaceutical research Theoretically, pharmaceutical researchers could simply take thousands of plant samples and conduct a battery of tests on them to establish any useful medicinal properties. In practice, this is a time-consuming and financially inefficient method. The discovery of useful medicines can be significantly accelerated by taking into account indigenous biomedical knowledge found in the communities where the plants are native. Shamans may be asked to point out potentially useful plants and list their known properties. Typically such local knowledge has been built up over centuries or millenia. Modern pharmaceutical research can build on that local knowledge and achieve faster results. Indigenous knowledge is a term applied to knowledge held in specific cultures, world-wide. ...
Specifically, Shaman (saman) is a term in Evenk, Manchu and other Manchu-Tungus languages for an intellectual and spiritual figure; who usually possess power and influence on other peoples in the tribe and performs several functions, one of which is analogous to the function of a healer in other cultures. ...
Media reports about discoveries based on indigenous biomedical knowledge naturally focus on a few outstandingly successful cases. This draws attention away from the realities of pharmaceutical research, in which thousands of dead-ends may be investigated before a positive result is found. Pharmaceutical research has some of the economic properties of attempting to win the jackpot in a lottery. Very large numbers of unsuccessful bets have to be placed, with a small chance of hitting the jackpot. But if the jackpot is hit, the economic returns are unpredictable and can be wildly out of proportion to the invested effort. The lobby group Rural Advancement Foundation International reports that random testing has a success rate of about 1:10000, but if testing is combined with local shamanic knowledge, the success rate can be improved to about 1:2.[6] A less optimistic, but neverthless significant success rate increase to 1:5000 is attributed to the NIH.[7] NIH can refer to: National Institutes of Health Norwegian School of Sports Sciences: (Norges idrettshøgskole - NIH) Not Invented Here This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
Famous cases in biopiracy
The Rosy Periwinkle The Rosy Periwinkle case dates from the 1950's, prior to ethics becoming widely recognized as playing a role in business. The case is discussed above.
The Neem Tree In 1995 the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a pharmaceutical research firm received a patent on a technique to extract an anti-fungal agent from the Neem tree (Azadirachta indica), which grows throughout India; Indian villagers have long understood the tree's medicinal value. Although the patent had been granted on an extraction technique, the Indian press described it as a patent on the Neem tree itself; the result was widespread public outcry, which was echoed throughout the developing world. Legal action by the Indian government followed, with the patent eventually being overturned (2005).[8] Neem tree This image has been taken by Leonardo Lucantoni, who concedes it as open source material. ...
Neem tree This image has been taken by Leonardo Lucantoni, who concedes it as open source material. ...
Binomial name Azadirachta indica A.Juss. ...
Importantly, the pharmaceutical company involved in the Neem case argued that as traditional Indian knowledge of the properties of the Neem tree had never been published in an academic journal, such knowledge did not amount to "prior art" (prior art is the term used when previously existing knowledge bars a patent). In most patent laws, prior art or state of the art (the latter term sometimes has other meanings as well) is all information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date. ...
In response to biopiracy threats such as this, India has been translating and publishing ancient manuscripts containing old remedies in electronic form. The texts are being recorded from Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian and Arabic; they will be made available to patent offices in English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish in 2006. The aim is to protect India's heritage from being exploited by foreign companies. Hundreds of Yoga poses are also kept in the collection. The project has been criticised by a spokesman for the pharmaceutical industry as "a solution in search of a problem".[9]
The Enola Bean The Enola bean is a variety of Mexican yellow bean, so called after the wife of the man who patented it for the variety's distinct shade of yellow in 1999.[10] The patent-holder subsequently sued a large number of importers of Mexican yellow beans with the following result: "...export sales immediately dropped over 90% among importers that had been selling these beans for years, causing economic damage to more than 22,000 farmers in northern Mexico who depended on sales of this bean."[11] A law suit was filed on behalf of the farmers but the outcome of the case is unknown.[12]
The Hoodia Cactus The Hoodia Cactus originates from the Kalahari Desert of South Africa. For generations it has been known to the traditionally-living San people as an appetite suppressant. In recent years (2004 onwards) there has been sensationalist media coverage of the cactus. Derived products may be introduced into developed countries as a cure for obesity. The long-term benefits are controversial. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1164x1700, 187 KB) Summary Fig. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1164x1700, 187 KB) Summary Fig. ...
Species See text Hoodia is a genus of 13 species in the flowering plant family Apocynaceae, under the subfamily Asclepiadoideae. ...
The Kalahari Desert is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area in southern Africa extending 900,000 km², covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. ...
San or SAN can refer to any of the following: Look up San in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Look up san in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Anorectics, anorexigenics or appetite suppressants, are substances which reduce the desire to eat (anorectic, from the Greek an- = not and oreg- = extend, reach). Used on a short term basis clinically to treat obesity, some appetite suppressants are also available over the counter. ...
- See main article: Hoodia Cactus
Species See text Hoodia is a genus of 13 species in the flowering plant family Apocynaceae, under the subfamily Asclepiadoideae. ...
Further cases The following is a selection of some of the more interesting cases in recent biopiracy studies. http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/mexico/biopiracy.pdf Binomial name Curcuma longa Linnaeus Turmeric (Curcuma longa, also known as tumeric) is a spice commonly used in curries and other South Asian cooking. ...
Binomial name Momordica charantia Descourt. ...
Binomial name Chenopodium quinoa Willd. ...
Brazzein is a natural artificial sweetener which is 2000x sweeter than sucrose. ...
Binomial name Azadirachta indica A.Juss. ...
Basmati, is a small long-grained variety of rice, famous for its fragrance and delicate flavour. ...
Legal and political aspects of biopiracy
Patent law A frequent legal misunderstanding with respect to biopiracy is the belief that pharmaceutical companies patent the plants they collect. It is not possible to patent a previously known living organism. Patents are instead typically taken out on specific chemicals isolated or developed from plants, often in combination with a stated and researched use of those chemicals.
In the United States, patent law can be used to protect "isolated and purified" compounds. In 1873, Louis Pasteur patented a "yeast" which was "free from disease" (patent #141072). U.S. courts have upheld patents on biological substances like adrenaline and even basic elements. Patents covering biological inventions have been treated similarly. In the 1980 case of Diamond v. Chakrabarty, the Supreme Court upheld a patent on a bacterium that had been genetically modified to consume petroleum, reasoning that U.S. law permits patents on "anything under the sun that is made by man." The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has observed that "a patent on a gene covers the isolated and purified gene but does not cover the gene as it occurs in nature".[13] A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to an inventor or applicant for a limited amount of time (normally maximum 20 years from the filing date, depending on extension). ...
1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...
Louis Pasteur (December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a French microbiologist and chemist. ...
Epinephrine (INN) or adrenaline (BAN) is a hormone and a neurotransmitter. ...
The periodic table of the chemical elements A chemical element, often called simply an element, is a substance that cannot be decomposed or transformed into other chemical substances by ordinary chemical processes. ...
Diamond v. ...
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the judicial branch of the United States federal government. ...
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides patent and trademark protection to inventors and businesses for their inventions and corporate and product identification. ...
It is also possible, under U.S. law, to patent a cultivar. In other words, cultivating a new variety of an organism which enhances certain properties of the organism enables the cultivator to secure a patent on that variety. The patent on the Enola bean is an example of this sort of patent. The intellectual property laws of the United States also recognize plant breeders' rights under the Plant Variety Protection Act, 7 U.S.C. §§ 2321-2582.[14] This Osteospermum Pink Whirls is a successful cultivar. ...
In law, intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain types of information, ideas, or other intangibles in their expressed form. ...
Plant breeders rights, also known as plant variety rights (PVR), are intellectual property rights granted to the breeder of a new variety of plant. ...
The Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970 (PVPA), 7 U.S.C. §§ 2321-2582, is an intellectual property statute in the United States. ...
Convention on Biological Diversity The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) came into force in 1993. It confirmed rights to control access to biological resources for the countries in which those resources were located. One objective of the CBD is to enable lesser-developed countries to better benefit from their resources and traditional knowledge. Under the rules of the CBD, bioprospectors are required to obtain informed consent to access such resources, and must share any benefits with the biodiversity-rich country. However, some critics believe that the CBD has failed to establish appropriate regulations to prevent biopiracy. The Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty that was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. ...
1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...
Informed consent is a legal condition whereby a person can be said to have given consent based upon an appreciation and understanding of the facts and implications of an action. ...
The 1994 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and the 2001 International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture are further relevant international agreements. The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) is an international treaty which sets down minimum standards for most forms of intellectual property regulation within all member countries of the WTO. Specifically, TRIPs deals with copyright and related rights (ie. ...
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, popularly known as the International Seed Treaty, is a comprehensive international agreement in harmony with Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims at guaranteeing food security through the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of the worlds plant genetic resources...
Bioprospecting contracts A consequence of ethical debate and inter-governmental agreements has been the rise, since the 1990's, of bioprospecting contracts between biomedical research companies and the national governments of countries with high biodiversity. Bioprospecting contracts lay down the rules of benefit sharing and can potentially bring substantial royalties to lesser-developed countries. On the other hand, the fairness of such contracts has been a subject of debate. Unethical bioprospecting contracts (as distinct from ethical ones) can be viewed as a new form of biopiracy.
An extensively discussed example of a bioprospecting contract is the Inbio agreement between Merck and Costa Rica.[15] Merck may refer to: Merck & Co. ...
Ethical issues in biopiracy and bioprospecting
Deontological (rights-based) considerations The rights at issue in the biopiracy debates are primarily ownership rights. The question is: who owns the earth's biodiversity? [16] In moral philosophy, deontology is the view that morality either forbids or permits actions, which is done through moral norms. ...
Rainforests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth Biodiversity or biological diversity is the diversity of life. ...
- See also: ownership, res nullius
Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive possession or control of property, which may be an object, land/real estate, intellectual property or some other kind of property. ...
Res nullius is a principle by which a nation may assert control of an unclaimed territory. ...
Ownership rights of national governments Under current international law, national governments own the biological resources present within their country, just as they own mineral rights or are responsible for human rights. The fact that this is the legal situation does not automatically make it ethically right, however. The case for national governments having an ethical right to ownership of their biological resources must be argued separately.
An advantage of national government ownership is that some national governments may be strong enough to defend those property rights (e.g. against pharmaceutical corporations). There is little point in assigning property rights to parties who are too weak to defend them.
One problem with national government ownership is that there may be conflicts of interest in developing countries between national governments and local communities. High biodiversity tends to occur in the least developed regions. National governments tend to represent the more developed and urbanised populations of a country. Ethnic and historical gaps between governmentally well-represented groups and the populations of the least developed regions are not infrequent. The knowledge at issue in the biopiracy debates is the knowledge of these local communities, not the knowledge of their governments.
Ownership rights of local communities One might argue that it is the local communities who possess the traditional biomedical knowledge who should benefit from the commercial use of such knowledge. Ownership rights should be attributed to these communities in order to safeguard their interests.
An argument against this is that patent and copyright law have long been understood as merely temporary legal mechanisms for allowing inventors to recoup some profits - enough to motivate them to make their discoveries in the first place. The ethical basis of intellectual property thinking is that knowledge is a public good over which a monopoly is only temporarily granted to any specific possessor of that knowledge. Patents and copyrights expire, and rightly so, so that everyone can eventually benefit. If one applied this thinking to the ownership rights of local communities, their intellectual property rights would have long since expired in the interests of the benefit of the rest of humanity. In law, intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain types of information, ideas, or other intangibles in their expressed form. ...
All mankind as the owner of biodiversity The view that specific groups or individuals should only "own" knowledge temporarily in order to reap short-term benefits involves the associated view that ultimately all knowledge is a common good belonging to everyone.
It was under this principle that Eli Lilly built on local knowledge of the Rosy Periwinkle in the 1950's, and it is under this principle that biopiracy generally takes place. The argument is that the old and incomplete knowledge taken from local communities is public knowledge, whereas the completion or development of this knowledge creates something new which can rightly be patented for a limited period of time to the benefit of the pharmaceutical company.
Consequentialist arguments Consequentialist arguments typically look at issues such as the maximisation of utility or other benefits. In the case of the Rosy Periwinkle, the most important consequences are the numbers of children's lives saved (and those of various other types of cancer sufferer). An ownership right entails the right to refuse use to anyone - in other words, a deontological approach to the biopiracy problem would logically entail that the owner of the biological resource could impose (for example) export licences and then refuse to grant these or restrict them excessively. To the consequentialist mind, it is intuitively intolerable that large numbers of children should have to die out of respect for a government's property rights. Consequentialism is the belief that what ultimately matters in evaluating actions or policies of action are the consequences that result from choosing one action or policy rather than the alternative. ...
In economics, utility is a measure of the happiness or satisfaction gained consuming good and services. ...
A white Rosy Periwinkle flower The Rosy Periwinkle (catharanthus roseus) is a species of the Madagascar periwinkle genus in the apocynaceae and Kareen whoo go kareen!!ŹăĞĞfamily and is native to Madagascar. ...
The Rosy Periwinkle case is somewhat exceptional, however - the benefits arising from vincristine are unusual among pharmaceutical products. In the case of the Enola bean the consequentialist arguments clearly favour the interests of Mexican bean farmers. In the case of the Hoodia cactus the moral need for the drug is less obvious, while at the same time the payment of appropriate compensation to the San would probably have the consequence of finally destroying their fragile way of life. Vincristine (Oncovin®) is an alkaloid from the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus, formerly Vinca rosea and hence its name). ...
Species See text Hoodia is a genus of 13 species in the flowering plant family Apocynaceae, under the subfamily Asclepiadoideae. ...
San or SAN can refer to any of the following: Look up San in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Look up san in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
An alternative approach to the utilitarian argument assesses claims of biopiracy by examining the economic incentives underlying each step of the inventive transformation of genetic information into commercially valuable applications. Because most ethnobiological information already lies in the public domain, a utilitarian approach to intellectual property as a tool for persuading inventors to disclose their discoveries in exchange for a temporary patent undermines most claims to compensation for alleged biopiracy.[17] The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...
In law, intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain types of information, ideas, or other intangibles in their expressed form. ...
A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and...
Virtue-based arguments A virtue-based approach might state that although assigning property rights turns out to be a futile and self-contradictory exercise, nevertheless there is something more fundamentally and intuitively offensive about taking shamanic knowledge from traditional communities and making millions out of this without paying anything back to the communities in question. A virtue-based approach can thus bypass the difficult rights issues while nevertheless appealing to fundamental concepts of virtue to enforce some kind of exchange between prospectors and indigenous peoples. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Notes - ^ An extended discussion of the definition of biopiracy: Graham Dutfield (2004). "What is Biopiracy?". International Expert Workshop on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing.
- ^ Mitzi Perdue, The Rosy Periwinkle
- ^ Living Rainforest, Cancer cured by the rosy periwinkle
- ^ UNU-IAS Report Bioprospecting of Genetic Resources in the Deep Seabed: Scientific, Legal and Policy Aspects p.15
- ^ Smithsonian Centre for Education and Museum Studies, A traditional brew leads to cancer cure.
- ^ Rural Advancement Foundation International (1994), Bioprospecting/Biopiracy And Indigenous Peoples.
- ^ Global Exchange (2004), Biopiracy: A New Threat to Indigenous Rights and Culture in Mexico.
- ^ Vandana Shiva, The neem tree - a case history of biopiracy
- ^ John Lancaster (2006), Age-old cures go online
- ^ L. Pallottinia, E. Garciab, J. Kamic, G. Barcacciaa and P. Gepts (2004). "The Genetic Anatomy of a Patented Yellow Bean". Crop Science 44: 968–977.
- ^ Danielle Goldberg (2003), Jack and the Enola Bean
- ^ Web blogs discuss the possible fate of the Enola Bean case: Whatever happened to the Enola Bean? and The Return of the Enola Bean: Biopirating Biodiversity?
- ^ US Patent and Trademarks Office (2001), Utility Examination Guidelines
- ^ Jim Chen (2005). "The Parable of the Seeds: Interpreting the Plant Variety Protection Act in Furtherance of Innovation Policy". Notre Dame Law Review 81: 105–166.
- ^ John Eberlee (2000), Assessing the Benefits of Bioprospecting in Latin America
- ^ Paul Gepts (2004). "Who Owns Biodiversity, and How Should the Owners Be Compensated?". Plant Physiology 134: 1295–1307.
- ^ Jim Chen (2006). "There's No Such Thing as Biopiracy ... And It's a Good Thing Too". McGeorge Law Review 37.
See also Natural capital is a metaphor for the mineral, plant, and animal formations of the Earths biosphere when viewed as a means of production of oxygen, water filter, erosion preventer, or provider of other natural services. ...
A biological patent differs from a regular patent. ...
Bioprospecting is the collecting and testing of biological samples (plants, animals, micro-organisms) and the collecting of indigenous knowledge to help in discovering and exploiting genetic or biochemical resources Bioprospecting has primarily economic purposes (e. ...
Traditional knowledge (TK), indigenous knowledge (IK), and local knowledge generally refer to the matured long-standing traditions and practices of certain regional, indigenous, or local communities. ...
The flag of 18th-century pirate Calico Jack Piracy is robbery committed at sea, or sometimes on the shore, by an agent without a commission from a sovereign nation. ...
In law, intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain types of information, ideas, or other intangibles in their expressed form. ...
Plant breeders rights, also known as plant variety rights (PVR), are intellectual property rights granted to the breeder of a new variety of plant. ...
Bibliography and resources - The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (United Nations Environment Programme) maintains an information centre which as of April 2006 lists some 3000 "monographs, reports and serials".
- Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (United Nations Environment Programme), Bibliography of Journal Articles on the Convention on Biological Diversity (March 2006). Contains references to almost 200 articles. Some of these are available in full text from the CBD information centre.
- Shiva, Vandana (1997). Biopiracy : The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge. South Press.
- Jim Chen (2005). "Biodiversity and Biotechnology: A Misunderstood Relation". Michigan State Law Review 2005: 51–102.
External links - Out of Africa: Mysteries of Access and Benefit-Sharing - a 2006 report on biopiracy in Africa by The Edmonds Institute
- Cape Town Declaration - Biowatch South Africa
- Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN)
- Third World Network (TWN)
- Indian scientist denies accusation of biopiracy - SciDev.Net
- African 'biopiracy' debate heats up - SciDev.Net
- Bioprospecting: legitimate research or 'biopiracy'? - SciDev.Net
- ETC Group
- Richard Stallman on Biopiracy
- Biopirates in the Americas - By Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, AlterNet (June 3, 2003).
- The US Patent System Legalizes Theft and Biopiracy - By Vandana Shiva.
- Who Owns Biodiversity, and How Should the Owners Be Compensated?, Plant Physiology, April 2004, Vol. 134, pp. 1295-1307
- Captain Hook Awards
- Review article on bioprospecting from The Science Creative Quarterly
- Heald, Paul J. (2001), "'Your Friend in the Rain Forest': An Essay on the Rhetoric of Biopiracy" . Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=285177 or DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.285177
- Traditional Ecological Knowledge Prior Art Database
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