“Patenting Trends

in Marine

Biodiversity- Issues

& Challenges”BY

Deepak Debnath,Saravanan. A,

LL.M-II(IPR),SLS-PUNE

Scheme of the Presentation:

Statistics of Marine Biodiversity (MBD): Global & India

Patenting trends in Marine Biodiversity Statistics of Marine Patents Recent Developments Legal framework to conserve MBD

Global & India Recommendations

Introduction:

Human civilization and Biodiversity exploitation

70% of earth contribution-Ocean & Seas

Marine Biodiversity (MBD)-Sustainable Development

Global Marine Biodiversity (MBD):

Definition: App 3,00,000-Described Marine Species Two biggest repositories-Coral reef and Deep

Sea

India’s Contribution: One of 17 mega Biodiverse countries 25-hotspots Only country in Asia – long record inventories

of coastal and marine Biodiversity

Statistics of MBD in India:

Coastline- 7517 km; 5423 km (Mainland) & 2094 km (Islands)

Survey taken by ZSI in 2005: Only 2/3 of marine habitat is covered till today

1) Marine Algae: 844-Species, 217-Genera, Rhidophyta-434

species Uses-Agar, Liquid Fertilizer, Commercial

Farming

Cont…2) Sponges: 486 species3) Arthropoda Crustacea: 1,50,000 (Globally) of which 40,000 have

been described so far

4) Coral Reef Biodiversity: Globally: Unknown (App ranges from

600,000 to 9 million) Highest-Indo Pacific, Lowest- Eastern Pacific India: 218 species (60 genera and 15

families) Four major Reef Areas

Patenting Trends in Marine Biodiversity (MBD):

Use of MBD to human- Ancient times (4000 yrs ago) China, Japan, Taiwan and India MBD Ecosystem Vs Economic Valuation Repository of novel pharmaceuticals 55 to 214 new anti-cancer drugs extract from marine

species world’s oceans- major frontier for medical research

PharmaMAR (Spain & USA), AquaPharma Biodiversity Ltd. (UK) & Nereus pharmaceuticals (USA)

Aventis, Neurex, Novartis and Wyeth

Marine Biotechnology:

Emerging field- Marine biomedical to develop new products

Backbone- progress made in Genetics and Genetic Engineering

It combats in life-threatening illnesses Gene of marine organisms are patented

globally Blooming of Marine patents and Marine

Genetic Resources (MGRs) result in exploitation of MBD.

The applications of gene of marine organisms Patented:

Human health

(55%)

Agriculture or

Aquaculture (26%),

Food (17%)

Cosmetics (7%)

Statistics of Marine Patents:

Pharmaceutical, Nutritional, Cosmeceutical led to an incredible coverage by intellectual property in the form of patents being filed worldwide.

European Union, United States of America, Japan, Germany, India and others.

Among 677 international claims of marine gene patents deposited between 1991 and 2009, 8648 sequences from 520 species were found.

Cont… MGRs related

claims are originate from 31 out of 194 countries in the world.

Ten countries own 90% of the patents deposited with marine genes, with 70% belonging to the top three countries.

Country - Marine Organism patent claims

USA- 199Germany -149Japan- 128France- 34United Kingdom -33Denmark- 24Belgium- 17Netherland -13Switzerland -11 Norway -9

Recent Developments:

Current applications- 8% of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

The patent division of GenBank lists more than 5 million records of DNA sequences deposited in different patent offices worldwide.

2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of GFPs, originally described from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria.

Conservation of Marine Genetic Resources (MGRs):

IUCN data shows that 36 of the 340 marine eukaryotic species reported as a source of genes included in the patents.

Thus 8 of the 36 marine species assessed so far are threatened and 7 of them are qualifying for threatened in future.

Future of MBD: Unknown or Unknowable

Global market for marine biotechnology estimated US $2.1 billion in 2002, increasing at a rapid 9.4% from the previous year.

Anthropogenic exploitation of Marine Biodiversity results in more extinction.

The future exploitation is inevitable.

Legal Frameworks to conserve MBD:

Internationally: Part VII & Part IX of the United Nation

Convention on Law of Seas (UNCLOS)

Art. 15- Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) regulating access to genetic resources through mutual agreements between countries of origin of resources and those acquiring them.

There is no universally accepted legal framework to conserve MGRs.

Recent Johannesburg SD summit, 2012 & CBD-COP 11, 2012 failed.

National Framework:

No specific enactment

Chapter-II, S. 3-7 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002- Mandatory provision to get approval from National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) to obtain Genetic Resources for exploitation & research.

Recommendations: Urgent need to develop International

Legislation to regulate conservation of marine resources.

New authority could be established in line with ISBA & CBD.

Economic Instruments’- payment for preserving ecosystems should also be introduced.

National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) along with Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) should frame guidelines

Conclusion:

Government should make effective policies.

Nature protects if She is protected (“Prakruti Rakshati Rakshita”)