Related Content

Bioserfdom: Technology, Intellectual Property and the Erosion of Farmers' Rights in the Industrialized World

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Gene Licensing Agreements; Precision Farming

Two trends in industrial agriculture are contributing to the erosion of farmers' rights and lead to bioserfdom: 1) Monsanto's 1996 gene licensing agreement; 2) "Precision farming" and the role it plays in the commodification of information technology and the growing influence of the life industry in farm-level decision-making.

Colombian Indigenous People Negotiate to get Human Tissue Samples Back

Submitted by ETC Staff on

A Colombian genetics institute has offered to return its collection of thousands of samples of human tissue collected in dozens of Colombian indigenous peoples' communities. Indigenous peoples' representatives, including Colombian Senator Lorenzo Muelas and the OrganizaciÛn Nacional IndÌgena de Colombia (ONIC - National Indigenous Peoples' Organisation of Colombia), are currently negotiating the formal return of control and ownership of the samples, which are housed in a Bogot· human tissue bank.

Related Issues: 
Patents & Biopiracy
Genomics & Biotechnology
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity

IOCD's Biotic Exploration Fund

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Development Programme or Corporate Proxy?

If you have a close eye on bioprospecting, you may have heard about the particularly grandiose plans of the International Organisation for Chemical Sciences in Development's (IOCD) Biotic Exploration Fund". The Fund is a major international effort to promote bioprospecting originally proposed by Thomas Eisner, an academic who "conceived and facilitated" the Merck/InBio deal in Costa Rica. IOCD has hired a former Science and Technology Adviser to the World Bank to push the Fund, which is being aggresively promoted to many potential Northern funding agencies.

IOCD, a Belgian-chartered international NGO with a legal identity in the United States, is unabashedly fanatical about the potential for bioprospecting to protect the environment and be a "sustainable source of economic development." In fact, according to IOCD, without bioprospecting, the world's diversity may be doomed: "In comparison with the severity of the global biodiversity crisis, the amount of bioprospecting in developing countries is clearly far too small. Hence, the only appropriate response to the global crisis would be a great expansion of the scale and quality of bioprospecting throughout the developing world."

Related Issues: 
Corporate Concentration
Patents & Biopiracy

Dolly: Clone or Commodity?

Submitted by ETC Staff on

RAFI Follows the Money

Before disclosing the cloning breakthrough, patent applications were filed and research papers prepared for publication. PPL Therapeutics, a small biotechnology company will be assigned the patent. After the cloning announcement, shares of PPL Therapeutics jumped 16% in one day on the London Stock Exchange.

Related Issues: 
Patents & Biopiracy
Genomics & Biotechnology

The Human Tissue Trade

Submitted by ETC Staff on

The Global Traffic and Market in Human Biomaterials

Despite the promise of medical breakthroughs, the utilization of human tissue prompts intense ethical concerns regarding ownership of human biomaterials, eugenics, discrimination and medical confidentiality. A large and growing South to North and North to North movement of human tissue is taking place in an almost total policy and regulatory vacuum.

World's Top 10 Seed Corporations

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Ranked According to 1996 Seed Sales

Company Estimated 1996 seed sales (US) millions Comment

Pioneer Hi-Bred Intl. (USA) $1,721 Dupont now owns 20% share in Pioneer

Novartis (Switzerland) $991 formerly Ciba Geigy and Sandoz

Limagrain (France) $552 French cooperative; claims to be the world's largest vegetable seed company.

Advanta - joint venture of Zeneca/Van der Have (The Netherlands) $493 Zeneca and Royal VanderHave established joint venture in 1996. The name of their merged company is Advanta

Related Issues: 
Corporate Concentration

Legislation in US Congress Proposes to Privatize the US Patent and Trademark Office

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Just when we thought that the U.S. patent system couldn't possibly operate any more to the advantage of big business, there's a bill before the US Congress that proposes to modernize" the US Patent and Trademark Office by making it a private corporation. (1)

Privatization of the US PTO? This is not a joke. HR 400, "The 21st Century Patent System Improvement Act" is a series of six acts that propose major changes in the US patent system. Backed by powerful interests, the bill is moving quickly through Congress, and a vote is expected in the House of Representatives any day.

Related Issues: 
Corporate Concentration
Patents & Biopiracy

Enclosures of the Mind: Intellectual Monopolies

Submitted by ETC Staff on

A Resource Kit on Community Knowledge, Biodiversity, and Intellectual Property Rights

An introduction to intellectual property monopolies. The 70 page booklet produced by IDRC in 1996 is designed as an information and advocacy tool for civil society and policymakers in response to two new, legally binding international agreements: the Convention on Biological Diversity and the World Trade Organization's Trade Related Intellectual Property Agreement (WTO/TRIPs).

Related Issues: 
Patents & Biopiracy
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity
Related Fora: 
Trade: UNCTAD, WTO
Biodiversity: CBD, SBSTTA, IPBES

1996 Biopiracy Update

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Bolivian Quinoa Claimed in US Patents

"Biopiracy" -- a term coined by RAFI in 1994 - refers to the use of intellectual property laws to gain exclusive monopoly control over genetic resources that are based on the knowledge and innovation of farmers and indigenous peoples. This issue examines a patent claim on Bolivian quinoa, a US patent on turmeric, and more.

US Government Dumps the Hagahai Patent

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Official Notice to Coincide with Human Rights Day

After months of indecision and confusing signals, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has finally put an end to its internationally-denounced patent on the human cell line of a Hagahai indigenous person from Papua New Guinea. I hope this is the end of what is arguably the most offensive patent ever issued." says Alejandro Argumedo of the Canada-based Indigenous Peoples' Biodiversity Network (IPBN).

The Life Industry

Submitted by ETC Staff on

New IPR Resource Kit Available. U.S. Equivocates on Hagahai Patent

This is RAFI's first annual update on the "Life Industry" - the giant transnational enterprises that use, buy, sell and control an ever-growing market share of bio-industrial products relating to food, agriculture and health. A list of the top 10 corporations, ranked by 1995 sales, is given for each sector.

Pharmaceutical Companies Bid for Northern Botanical Garden Collections in Attempt to Avoid the Biodiversity Convention

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Cotton "Failing in the Field"

Pharmaceutical firms and biotech companies are approaching botanical gardens to buy samples of tropical plant diversity - a clear violation of the spirit - if not the law - of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The rights of farmers and indigenous peoples are being bypassed by corporate deals that make a mockery of the CBD's fundamental principles.

Pages

Subscribe to Recent Content Related to Fora