BOTANY Higher Secondary Second Year - Textbooks Online

2. The genetic resources of the developing nations are over exploited
by the rich nations. For instance, Basmati rice is a crop grown indigenously
in India from a very long time. In U.S.A the Government had granted a
patent to cover the entire ‘basmati’ rice plant so that other countries or
institutions cannot undertake any other research programmes pertaining
to Basmati plant. In U.S.A, such patents are given for 17 long years.
3. Pentadiplandra brazzeana, a native plant of West Africa, produces
a protein called brazzein. It is several 100 times as sweet as sugar. Local
people use it as a low-calorie sweetener. This development could have
serious implications for sugar exporting countries.
Richer nations are over exploiting the commercial resources of the
developing countries without adequate compensation. With advances in
scientific equipments, instruments and techniques, the biodiversity of the
poor and developing nations of the tropics are overused and exploited by
the rich nations. There is a growing awareness of this over exploitation
and hence the developing countries are enacting legislative laws to prevent
this over exploitation by the rich nations.
6.6. Bio-patent
The emergence of modern biotechnology has brought forth many legal
characterizations and treatment of trade related biotechnological processes
and produces, popularly described as Intellectual Property. Intellectual
Property Protection (IPP) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are
the two unique facets of any Bio-patency. Intellectual property includes
‘patents’, ‘trade secrets’, ‘copy rights’ and ‘trade marks’ obtained for
processes and products created through one’s own knowledge and research.
The right to protect this property prohibits others from making copying
using or selling these processes and products. In this era of biotechnology,
one of the most important examples of intellectual property is the creation
of organisms containing new recombinant DNA. Another example of
Intellectual property is the new crop varieties, which are protected through
‘Plant Breeder’s Rights’ or PBR’s. The plant breeder who developed
this new variety enjoys the exclusive right for marketing the variety.
Patenting of important crops and animal breeds may bring down a
shortfall in genetic resources. One of the major negative aspects of bio-
247