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Patenting Lives Conference
Public Goods, Public Interest Panel
Public Domain, Public Goods, Public Interest
Ashish Gosain
In locating the centrepoint of the interesting debate on whether Life can be patented, this paper attempts to look at the epistemiological basis of any regulatory effort in terms of the concepts essential to the jurisprudential notions of property and scientific advances that allow us to "manipulate" life. Moving with an understanding of the public domain as an area of cultural and social space that the Law intends creating and defining, we shall understand how the cornerstones of any legal system - public goods and public interest as organic concepts - interact and formulate our notions on property in life and living organisms. More specifically, as the new advances of functional genomics and biotechnology and transgenic plants move from the laboratory to the world, how moral and ethical concerns voiced on sociological platforms shape our thought patterns as societies at various stages of development will become an interesting case in point. Coming from a developing country perspective, where life is held sacred as opposed to subjects of commercial and scientific exploitation, the paper will include a detailed view of the ethical and moral issues perceived to be relevant to this debate. In doing so, a holistic roadmap for regulation governing moral and ethical issues governing intellectual property in life and living things will be introduced. The paper modestly attempts this in view of the current regulatory efforts by way of National laws and treaty making systems and more pragmatically effectuated regulations relating to the public domain (and its ethical counterparts in public goods versus common good and public interest) by delving into the thought processes behind them.
Biopiracy and Contesting Patents on Life
Christopher Hamilton
Through the 1990s, the expanse in scale and scope of intellectual property rights combined with advances in the science and technology of genetics to create the space for a renewed interest in traditional knowledge about the medical uses of plants. Into this space emerged the concept of 'biopiracy', which sought initially to challenge the relationship between the various actors involved in practices of 'bioprospecting' - the search for, and often patenting of, potentially medically useful elements of plants used by people in areas of heavily concentrated biodiversity, usually in the developing world. The idea of 'biopiracy' relies heavily on activist problematisations of ‘bioprospecting' and has been taken up everywhere from major international activist campaigns to official government submissions to the World Trade Organization.
The primary interest in this paper is to probe the extent to which the activist groups contesting 'biopiracy' use the idea of the gene as a focal point of organisation. In particular, these groups articulate a seemingly fluid distinction between 'kinds' of life (plant and human), understood at the genetic level, when they problematise issues of 'patents on life'. Through an examination of the emergence and deployment of the term 'biopiracy' through the late 1990s, this paper will thus examine the term 'biopiracy' as a site of contestation and renegotiation of some of the boundaries in the life sciences, particularly pertaining to our understanding of the knowledge, patenting, and regulation of 'life'.
Patenting Lives: Where Does the Philippines Stand?
Loyd Brendan P Norella (Co-Author Gregory Vincent Ferrer)
The primary interest in this paper is to probe the extent to which the activist groups contesting 'biopiracy' use the idea of the gene as a focal point of organisation. In particular, these groups articulate a seemingly fluid distinction between 'kinds' of life (plant and human), understood at the genetic level, when they problematise issues of 'patents on life'. Through an examination of the emergence and deployment of the term 'biopiracy' through the late 1990s, this paper will thus examine the term 'biopiracy' as a site of contestation and renegotiation of some of the boundaries in the life sciences, particularly pertaining to our understanding of the knowledge, patenting, and regulation of 'life'.
People's Knowledge, Social Asset
Reetu Sogani
The living knowledge or the wisdom which people have gained and developed through years of careful observation, experience, experimentation and adaptation has helped them survive and secure their livelihoods in the difficult and unique biophysical conditions of the mountains. But unfortunately large corporate bodies and multinationals are appropriating people's knowledge, and people's access and control over the resources, through the new patent regimes and intellectual property rights. This serves their larger commercial interests while the community which had been its holder, protector and practitioner, is being denied the access, right and control over both the knowledge and the biological resources. Instead of owning the seeds and grain like before, they are now being forced to pay exceedingly high prices for them as result of these foreign patents. As a result , the local varieties are being replaced with synthetic hybrid ones, diminishing seed diversity with uniformity, local cooperation with individualism, and eventually self-reliance with perpetual dependence, not just at the local but also at the national or global level. As a result, both the local wisdom and genetic resources are under serious threat of extinction. Changes brought about by this misappropriation through patents etc have put the survival of local people - especially the marginalised - at risk as it is negatively affecting their health, food security, livelihood, and living conditions. People with less access to monetary resources in environmentally fragile areas have been especially hard hit by these forces. In Uttaranchal (hilly state of India), women and dalits (so-called untouchables) are not only the marginalised but also happen to be the chief custodians of traditional knowledge systems. This paper considers a study carried out on the issues and the few very effective initiatives at the grassroots level that have been made in the middle Himalayan ranges. Such initiatives include documentation, protection, development and dissemination of people's knowledge and practices - both in ecological and economic terms - to ensure people's continued control over their lives and access to the resources required for their livelihood.
