BIOTECHNOLOGY AND

PATENTS,COPYRIHTS,TRADEMARKS
--Definition of IP(Intellectual Property) and IPR(Intellectual Property
Rights)
The issues related to legal characterization and the treatment of trade
related biotechnological processes and products
These are popularly known as Intellectual Property.
Intellectual Property includes
1.Patents
2. trade secrets
3. copyrights
4. trademarks.
In biotechnology, the intellectual property covers the processes and products
which result from the development of genetic engineering techniques through
the use of restriction enzymes to create recombinant DNA.
Restriction enzymes (is just like a scissor which) cuts the desired gene of a
virus (WHICH WE WANT TO PUT IN THE HOST CELL OR MOTHER
DNA) and sticks it with the help of ligase enzyme (which is like fevicol)onto
the mother DNA.In this way we get the Recombinant DNA with the desired
traits.
In the above figure
1=host bacteria(Yellow part) in which a change has to be brought(i.e a
desired trait has to be brought in)
2=virus has the desired trait which is the blue segment
3=Recombinant DNA or rDNA where the trait has been brought in.
1+2=3
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is a collective term applied to a number
of different types of legal rights granted by each country. The right to protect
this property prohibits others from making, copying, using or selling the
proprietary subject matter.
--- Advantages of getting a patent

1. help in encouraging and safeguarding intellectual and artistic
creations.(No Piracy to your innovations)
2. to disseminate new ideas and technologies quickly and
widely.
3. promote investment.
4.They help the inventor to provide the fruits and benefits of
his creation and invention to the public.
5. They provide increased opportunities for the distribution of
the above effects across countries in a manner proportionate to
national levels of economic and industrial development
(OECD, Paris, 1989)
-----What are breeders right?(PBR)
The new crop varieties are developed and protected through plant
breeders rights or PBRs. The PBRs ensures that the plant breeder who
developed a particular variety gets the exclusive rights for marketing the
variety.
The following two major steps were taken in consideration of PBRs:
1. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has an International
treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. This treaty
consists of a particular clauses which refers to operation of farmers rights.
2. The Plant Varietal Protection and Farmers Rights Act 2001 agrees for
the right of farmers, breeders, and researchers. The protection is provided by
making compulsory licensing of rights, and inhibiting the import of plant
varieties consisting of genetic use of restriction technology (GURT) e.g.
terminator technology of Monsanto.
Following conditions should be fulfilled to grant protection to the new
varieties:
a) the new variety must always be new i.e. it should not have ever been
exploited commercially.
b) It should be biologically distinct and possess different characters.
c) The new variety of the plant must have uniform characters.
f) The distinguishing character of new variety must be stable for
generations.
g) The new variety should have taxonomic validity i.e. systematic position,
generic and species names etc.
-- The general layout of a patent
A patent consists of three parts: the grant, specifications, and claims.(SCG or
Syndey Cricket Ground just a mnemonic)
The Grant- The grant is filled at the patent office which is not published. It is
the actual signed document which is the agreement that grants patent rights to
the inventor.
Specifications- The specifications part is narrative and describes the subject
matter and explains about the process of invention. It is published as a single
document which is made public at a minimum charge from the patent office.
The claim- The claim section specifically defines the scope of the invention to
be protected by the patent to which the others may not practice.
Reading a Patent
In order to file a patent, the documents required should have a specialized
structure. An applicant should first file a patent in his or her own country
and then at a later stage/date files in the international office. The
application is prepared with a specific, clear and concise title. A patent
attorney is appointed for the legal aspects of the patent whose job also
involves filling the patent in the office of the Controller of Patents.

(a) WIPO- World Intellectual Property Organisation,
(b)TRIPS- Trade related Intellectual Property rights,
(c) GM- Genetically modified,
(d) PCT- Patent Co-operation Treaty,
(e) GURT- Genetic use restriction technology.
---What do you mean by patenting live forms and examples
The EPO has suggested to patent the genetically engineered liveforms.
Onco mouse is one of the examples of which initially the patent claims
was rejected but on appeal the previous decision was overruled.

Genetically engineered E.coli, in which human genes for insulin, growth
hormone, t-PA etc have been introduced, have been patented in the USA.
The transgenic herbicide and bollworm resistant cotton, and insect-
resistant tobacco have been granted patents.
Several countries such as Japan, USA, Europe, etc. have modified the patent
laws stating that the transgenic plants and animals can be protected through
patent claims.
---- Trade secrets and Trademarks
Trade secrets relate to private proprietary information or physical material
that allows an advantage to the owner. Trade secrets in the biotechnology
field includes materials like hybridization conditions, cell lines, corporate
merchandise plans, customer lists etc. It is sometimes difficult to maintain
trade secrets in biotechnology due to its large degree of research component.
If the trade secrets become public before the granted period, the intellectual is
paid compensation and unauthorized users are punished by the Court.
The Trademark relates to distinctive words or symbols applied to products or
services by manufacturers and helps to distinguish the goods of different
companies. In biotechnology, the laboratory equipments, and some of the
vectors useful in recombinant research are known by their trademarks. The
public makes use of these trade works in order to choose whose goods they
will have to buy. Trademark laws vary in every country and through
agreement it is ensured that the trademark of one country must be protected in
another country.
---- Main areas of consideration for safety aspects in biotechnology
The main areas of consideration for safety aspects in biotechnology are the following:
1. How to dispose off spent microbial biomass and purify the effluents from
biotechnological processes?
2. The toxicity of the allergy associated with microbial production.
3. How to deal with the increase in the number of antibiotic resistant pathogenic
microorganisms?
4. How to evaluate the pathogenicity of the genetically engineered microorganisms to
infect humans, plants and animals?
-- PCT and Budapest treaty.
The Patent Co-operation Treaty(PCT) was signed in 1970 and is
administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
based in Geneva.
Patent applications filed under PCTs are first processed by WIPO before being
formally introduced into designated national systems.
The patents granted by PCT are treated as International patent.
The patent applications are processed by the WIPO which processes the
patent application in an International phase.
The international phase has concerns with: (a) formal preliminaries, (b) art
search, (c) publication of patent application.

The Budapest Treaty (1980) provides for the recognition of culture
collections at International Depository Authorities (IDA), in any of which a
new strain of microorganism can be deposited for the purposes of a
patent application in any member state.
The strains which can serve the purpose of scientific community or society
are accepted.
These can be procured if required in future to work in Industry or research.
The strains which are deposited are allocated an accession number, accession
date, source of isolation and specific function.
The purpose of convention of Budapest Treaty was to provide
International Recognition of Microorganisms for the purpose of patent
procedure.
--What is the role of copyright in biotechnology?

The copyright protection is only a form of expression of ideas.
The patents and trade secrets provide protection of only basic know how,
whereas copyrights protect the expressed materials viz. materials in
printed, video-recorded r taped form. In the field of biotechnology,
copyright usually may cover DNA sequence data which may be published.
Computer data bases, photomicrographs of DNA instruction manuals can also
be copyrighted.

NAME-GEORGE SINHA

REFERENCES

1. http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/why-the-biotech-industry-is-rejoicing-over-the-end-of-
gene-patents
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
3. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/saying-no-monsanto
4. NCERT CLASS 12 biology
5. Ramesh Singh"s book on Biodiversity