Artigos do Embaixador para a imprensa

The number of cases of biopiracy throughout the world has risen in recent years. The major victims are megabiodiverse countries, which have their biological resources and associated traditional knowledge misappropriated by foreign patent owners, a crime that is commonly referred to as "biopiracy."

Hindering those practices is one of the main challenges of the current round of negotiations in the World Trade Organization.

In accordance with the Doha Ministerial Declaration and the mandate received from Ministers in Hong Kong (December, 2005), Brazil, China, Cuba, India, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and Tanzania presented last May a draft amendment to the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement. The objective, which is supported by many developing countries, is to introduce a mandatory requirement for the disclosure of the origin of biological resources and/or associated traditional knowledge used in inventions for which intellectual property rights are sought.

According to the amendment, whenever the use of a patent involves biological resources and/or associated traditional knowledge, patent offices all over the world should require applicants to disclose the country providing those resources and/or traditional knowledge, from whom they were obtained, and their country of origin.

Patent applicants should also provide evidence of compliance with the legal requirements in the providing country for prior consent for access and fair and equitable benefit-sharing arising from the commercial or other utilization of such resources and/or associated traditional knowledge.

That amendment, known as the "disclosure amendment," which is in keeping with the Convention on Biological Diversity, intends to avoid environmental damage and the financial exploitation of traditional communities. It also highlights the political and economic importance developing countries attribute to this issue. Their governments are now demanding that the multilateral intellectual property system provide protection to countries that are recognized by the convention as sovereign owners of biological resources and of associated traditional knowledge.

Unethical conduct should not be rewarded by a patent system that grants patents to inventions obtained by dishonest practices.

The right to protect biological resources and associated traditional knowledge must be viewed as the same right already guaranteed to patent holders and copyright owners of CDs and DVDs. In fact, through the introduction of a disclosure requirement, the scope of protection of the multilateral system would be broadened and monitoring of dishonest practices would be viable and enforceable internationally.

The spirit of "Fair Play" so strongly promoted by FIFA, especially today in the World Cup, should also be an inspiration for the advancement of new practices and fair treatment of biological resources in the intellectual property system.

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