This work identify the issues and challenges of Marine Biodiversity and Gene Patents with some suggestions

1. “Patenting Trends in
Marine Biodiversity-
Issues & Challenges”
BY
Deepak Debnath,
Saravanan. A,
LL.M-II(IPR),
SLS-PUNE

2. 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

3. Introduction:
 Human civilization and Biodiversity exploitation
 70% of earth contribution-Ocean & Seas
 Marine Biodiversity (MBD)-Sustainable Development

4. 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

5. 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

6. Cont…
2) Sponges: 486 species
3) 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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. The applications of gene of marine
organisms Patented:
 Human health (55%)
 Agriculture or
Aquaculture (26%),
 Food (17%)
 Cosmetics (7%)

10. 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.

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

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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

18. Conclusion:
 Government should make effective policies.
Nature protects if She is protected (“Prakruti
Rakshati Rakshita”)