Biological Diversity

SpicyIP Weekly Review (March 6- March 11)

Here are the quick summaries of 5 posts, 4 case summaries and other IP developments that took place last week. Important IP cases that we’re missing out on? Especially from other High Courts?  Please let us know so we can include them!   Highlights of the Week Learning from India’s Disastrous Experience in Protecting Itself against Biopiracy In light of the upcoming WIPO Diplomatic Conference on Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge, Prashant Reddy brings us a post highlighting India’s sub-par experience with …

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Learning from India’s Disastrous Experience in Protecting Itself against Biopiracy

In light of the upcoming WIPO Diplomatic Conference on Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge, Prashant Reddy brings us a post highlighting India’s sub-par experience with its own Biological Diversity Act, 2002. Noting how the Indian Government is in the process of coming up with a new bill with significant amendments, Prashant suggests that perhaps other countries should look to learn from India’s experience. As our regular readers would know, Prashant has been one of our most prolific bloggers and his …

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Webinar on Digital Sequence Information (DSI): Implications on Access & Benefit Sharing [October 4-7]

We’re pleased to inform you that the DPIIT IPR Chair of Inter University Centre for Intellectual Property Rights Studies at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) is organizing a four day webinar on “Digital Sequence Information(DSI)- Implications on Access and Benefit Sharing” from October 4-7 2021. For further details, please read the announcement below. Webinar on Digital Sequence Information (DSI): Implications on Access & Benefit Sharing The four-day webinar aims to sensitise the legal fraternity about the challenges posed …

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (January 4 – 10)

Topical Highlight Issues in Sci-Hub Case ‘A Matter of Public Importance’ In this post, Swaraj highlighted some issues that came up during the hearing of the recent litigation, involving Elsevier, Wiley, and ACS suing Sci-Hub and LibGen for copyright infringement. He observed that it was a positive step for Justice Midha of the Delhi High Court to repeatedly point out that case was ‘a matter of public importance’, and he would not want to pass any orders without hearing the various …

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National Biodiversity Authority Imposing Upfront Monetary Payment as Benefit Sharing for Research

There has been a recent development in the context of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (‘BDA’), which I thought was interesting to share and discuss on the blog. Back in 2018, the Central Government issued the direction to the National Biodiversity Authority (‘NBA’) purportedly under Section 48 of the BDA. According to this office memorandum (followed by another) a kind of immunity deal was provided for persons who had committed any acts without the required approval from the authorities under …

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SpicyIP Weekly Review (November 30- December 6)

Topical Highlight COVID-19 Vaccines: Patent Ownership and the Barriers to Equitable Access In this post, Adyasha conducts a thorough analysis of the vaccines developed by Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford, the complex ownership status of their intellectual property, the bilateral pre-purchase deals struck with higher-income countries and their implications on the Global South. She first notes the importance of public funding for the fruition of the three vaccines upon which patent protection is being claimed by their respective owners. She then …

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Enabling the Use of People’s Biodiversity Registers within Environmental Impact Assessments

This post was co-authored by Dayaar Singla and myself. Dayaar is a final year student at NALSAR University of Law. He is an editor of the Indian Journal of Intellectual Property Law and the Editor-in-Chief of the Law and Other Things Blog, which Late Prof. Shamnad Basheer was an initial contributor to. In this post we look at recent changes to the creation of People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs) as well as the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) 2020 notification to …

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The New (Draft) Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Guidelines – Part II

Continuing further on my comments on the new Draft ABS Guidelines, 2019. Definition of Conventional Breeding Under draft Regulation 12(d), accessing biological resources for “conventional breeding or traditional practices in use in any agriculture, horticulture, poultry, dairy farming, animal husbandry or bee keeping”, is exempt from approval.  This exemption can perhaps be traced to the exclusion of the said activities in Section 2(f) of the BDA. However, the regulations now add a qualifier that such activities are exempt only if …

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The New (Draft) Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Guidelines – Part I

In this post, I intend to share my views on the draft “Guidelines on Access to Biological Resources and Associated Knowledge and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Regulations, 2019” (draft ABS Regulations, 2019). As many may be aware, the previous version of the same guidelines was issued in 2014, viz., ABS Regulations, 2014. The draft ABS Regulations, 2019, is intended to replace the earlier version and was put up for comments earlier this year. The topic is a little dated, but …

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Developing Bio-Cultural Jurisprudence for Securing Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities  – Divya Pharmacy v. UoI

We’re pleased to bring to you a guest post by Alphonsa Jojan. Alphonsa teaches at Tamil Nadu National Law University, Trichy. She has written a guest post for us earlier as well. Developing Bio-Cultural Jurisprudence for Securing Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities – Divya Pharmacy v. UoI Alphonsa Jojan On 21st December, 2018, the Uttarakhand High Court delivered its judgment (previously covered on the blog here) on a contentious issue under the Biological Diversity Act: whether  Indian companies, …

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