The Moral Foundations of Intellectual Property and Conservation through Access and Benefit-Sharing

Author(s):  
Charles R. McManis
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Clare Morrison ◽  
Fran Humphries ◽  
Charles Lawson

Countries are increasingly using access and benefit sharing (ABS) as a legal mechanism to support the conservation and sustainable use of the world’s biological diversity. ABS regulates collection and/or use of genetic resources/traditional knowledge and sharing benefits from their use with the provider. The purpose of this review is to assess the trends, biases and gaps of ABS literature using a regional comparative approach about the key topics of concern between each region. It analyses four key topic groupings: (1) implementation of international, regional and national ABS policy and law; (2) intellectual property and ABS; (3) traditional knowledge; and (4) research, development and commercialisation. Findings included gaps in: (1) analysing effectiveness of national level implementation; (2) addressing apparent conflicts between support for intellectual property promoting exclusivity for traditional knowledge and challenges to intellectual property exclusivity for patents; (3) examining traditional knowledge of local communities (in contrast to Indigenous Peoples); and (4) lack of practical examples that quantify benefit sharing from research and commercialisation outcomes. We conclude that future research addressing the identified gaps and biases can promote more informed understanding among stakeholders about the ABS concept and whether it is capable of delivering concrete biological conservation, sustainable use and equity outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Wyse ◽  
Gilad Luria

AbstractThe purpose of this review is to advance the field of applied cannabis research by providing insights into the patenting of medical cannabis and current intellectual property rights (IPR) data.Medical cannabis (MC) patent and plant breeders’ rights (PBR) registrations are filed on industrially applicable aspects of research. Studying the filing data and trends informs researchers of both gaps in current applied knowledge in MC (where patents have not been filed) and prior knowledge (where patents have already been filed).Our focus is on those intellectual property rights (IPR) that are registered and germane to technical innovations in MC and related products. These are patents and PBR and thus exclude trade secrets, copyrights, franchises, or trademarks. Methods used for surveying the defined IPR landscape include searches of publicly available patent and PBR data and classifying the data according to the upstream–midstream–downstream innovation paradigm of the MC industry.The findings suggest that the technical knowledge as expressed by patent filings is growing commensurate to the economic and legislative activity. Specific cannabis patents in agricultural technologies directed at improving yield, efficiency, and quality (known as “agritech”) are being filed and granted. These agritech-focused patents represent original novel and applied MC research achievements that address specific problems in cannabis cultivation, such as protection of the cannabis crop, maximizing cannabis yield, harvesting and post-harvesting of cannabis, and new advantageous varieties. Patents on ex planta and in planta cannabis genes expression have been published in recent years while patents on extraction methods for cannabinoids have increased since 2015. Much patent activity is in the downstream category of MC patient-oriented products and delivery systems for a very wide range of medical indications and disease conditions.The emerging importance of access and benefit-sharing treaties and regulations is noted with implications on the industry briefly discussed. Patent data on leading and emerging patentee companies and institutions are shown. We also provide evidence of prior art and freedom to operate.


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