IP and the Global Public Interest

1. Intellectual Property and the
Global Public Interest
The Role of Building IP Capacity in
Developing Countries

2. Intellectual Property, Social Justice and the Global Public
Interest
When properly managed, IP can advance social justice
by facilitating equitable access to essential
innovations in pharmaceuticals, vaccines and
agricultural biotechnologies. This will promote the
global public interest by improving basic health and
nutrition, especially among the poor of developing
countries, disproportionately represented by women
and children.

3. Capacity it Key
Capacity in IP management and technology transfer is
key for sustainable development. Capacity is the
presence of trained and educated personnel,
integrated with investments in physical and
institutional resources.
• Narrow perspective … operational level
• Examples of (patented) technologies applicable
• Integration into a broader, development, perspective

4. IP Capacity Building: The “Narrow” Perspective
In developing countries, building and strengthening of human and
institutional capacity in IP management will:
• Promote industrialized country entities to partner with
developing countries in international development
initiatives,
• Encourage developing countries to advance legal
infrastructure congruent with their economic, urban and
population growth,
• Rationalize valuation of native traditional knowledge and
biodiversity resources,
• Foster domestic invention and innovation, and
• Stabilize food and health security in many regions of the
world.

5. Examples of Biotechnological Innovations Serving the
Global Public Interest
1. Golden Rice
2. Parasitic Roundworm Vaccine
3. Phytoremediation of Dioxin
4. Red Detect Landmine Detection
System

6. Golden Rice
• Vitamin A deficiency is a global crisis.
• 140 million preschool-age children and over 7
million pregnant women are afflicted.
• Anemia, growth retardation, increased
infectious morbidity and death.
• Greatest burden in among those from the
developing world

7. Global Level of VAD

8. Effects of VAD:
Permanent eye
Damage and
Blindness
Burden on the
Poor in developing
countries

9. Golden Rice cont.
• “Golden Rice” is genetically engineered to
accumulate beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) in the
grain and thereby provide a cost-effective means for
production and delivery of vitamin A to those
suffering from deficiency. However, this is a very
complex biotechnological invention, embodying
numerous patented technologies. This complicates
transfer and restricts access.

10. The Complexity of Golden Rice
Gt1p psy (phytoene synthase) nos (ter)
35S (ter) aphIV (Hygromycin R) 35S (pro)
LB RB
35S (pro) tp crtI (phytoene desaturase) nos(ter)
pGt1psyH
psy (phytoene synthase)
pCPsyH
Daffodil cDNA
Gt1p
pKS1
Rice glutelin
promoter
pCIB900
pYPIET4
35S (pro) tp crtI (phytoene desaturase)nos(ter)
pSNIF83
Pea RuBisCo
transit peptide
pCRT-1
Erwinia uredovorapBI121
pBin19hpc
nos(ter)

11. The Complexity of Golden Rice, cont.
23 USSchreier 1985Pea RuBisCo transit
peptide - tp
No. of AssigneesNo. of PatentsReferenceComponent
21 JP
1 PCT
Okita et al 1989Rice glutelin promoter
- Gt1p
None foundNone foundNopaline synthase
terminator - nos(ter)
None foundNone foundCaMV35S Terminator
-
35S(ter)
23 US
1 PCT
CaMV35S Promoter -
35S(pro)
11 USWaldron et al, 1985
Wunn et al, 1996
Hygromycin
phosphotransferase -
aphIV
63 US, 1 EP
1 JP, 3 PCT
Schledz et al, 1996Phytoene synthase -
Psy
21 US
2 PCT
Fraser et al, 1992Phytoene desturase -
crtI

13. Parasitic Roundworms (Ascaris)
• Ascaris is a parasitic roundworm that lives in the small intestine of
humans.
• Worms can become quite large, up to one foot (30 centimeters) in
length
• Ascaris is spread via fecal contamination; in the intestines, and in
children can be quite serious, i.e., increased morbidity and mortality.
• Ascaris infections, known as ascariasis, are common throughout
tropical regions of the world.
• Ascariasis is endemic in many developing countries: the number of
infections is estimated at over one billion, with the greatest burden of
suffering falling on the poorest people.
• Vaccines have been developed that immunize against nematode
parasitic infections (e.g., Ascaris).

14. Parasitic Roundworm Ascaris

15. Ascaris bolus

17. Phytoremediation of Dioxin
• From 1961 until 1971 the U.S. military conducted a series of defoliation
sprayings in Vietnam, and to a lesser extent in Cambodia and Laos.
Codenamed “Operation Ranch Hand”.
• 13 million gallons were sprayed over 6500 square miles. The dominant
herbicide used was Agent Orange, which is contaminated with highly toxic
dioxin.
• In Vietnam, residual dioxin contamination in the soil has been linked to
elevated risks of cancer and birth defects.
• Phytoremediation is the use of plants to remove pollutants (e.g., heavy
metals, pesticides, explosives, toxic organics) from the soil, rather like a
biological vacuum cleaner.
• Genetically engineered plants may will likely be able to not only extract
but also detoxify dioxin from contaminated soils.

18. Agent Orange Application in Vietnam

21. Red Detect
• Landmine contamination, a persistently lethal problem, is another
legacy or war.
• In 2004 there were 6000 worldwide casualties from landmine
encounters, with the overwhelmingly majority occurring in
developing countries.
• Among the most landmine-polluted countries is Cambodia; decades
of war and social upheaval have left wounds still felt to this day.
• In 2004, Cambodia suffered 900 casualties from landmine
encounters, a disproportionate number of whom are women and
children.
• Common wounds include traumatic amputations and blindness.
• A Danish company, in collaboration with the Danish army, has
invented the “Red Detect” landmine bio-detection system. In Red
Detect, plants are genetically engineered to turn from green to red
when grown in the vicinity of high explosives (TNT) leaching out of
landmines.

22. Young Landmine Victim

23. The Red Detect Landmine System

24. Red Detect in Action

25. Carsten Meier
Inventor, Red Detect
Mine Detection System

27. Yes but …..
Once somebody “has” access to the patent
application, or document, then they can use
the invention …. Correct?

28. Asparagus Bed (top view)

29. Asparagus Bed (Cross view)
Sprouts = patent
Crowns and roots,
Hidden beneath the
Surface =
Essential know-how,
Show-how,
Trade secrets

30. Hybrid Licensing
• Technology transfer
• Building partnerships in research and development
• Trust, cooperation, collaboration
• Capacity in IP is essential
• Capacity building is two-way, that is, reciprocal
• Not only about “getting” IP
• Part of the larger development perspective

31. IP Capacity: The Broader Perspective,
Comprehensive, Coordinated and Integrated
International
Development
International
Development
Access to
Essential
Technologies
Building
Institutional
Infrastructure
Institutional
and Human
IP Capacity

33. Idealistic and Naive?

34. Old Concepts, if Good, Come Back
Alliance for Progress of the early 1960s. Now long forgotten,
the Alliance was a dynamic fusion of the practical wisdom of
President Eisenhower and the empathetic vision of
President Kennedy. Initially conceptualized by Eisenhower,
the Alliance was implemented by Kennedy, who acutely
knew that sustainable international development could only
be realized via the difficult work of building institutional
infrastructure in developing country partners. The Alliance
died with Kennedy, and has been largely supplanted with
alternate strategies of international development, e.g., the
current U.S. efforts in the Middle East.

36. The Alliance for Progress

37. Partnerships in Development: IP Capacity is
Fundamental
Product development partnerships are taking an
increasingly dynamic role in addressing global
concerns in public health and nutrition.
However, for sustainable development, the common
cornerstone of every effort is the requirement for
systematic establishment and strengthening of
technology transfer and IP management capacity in
developing countries.

38. Role of Pierce Law?
Formation of International Technology
Development Institute
1.Contribute to published literature,
2.Assist existing initiatives on relevant
projects,
3.Work with developing countries to establish
technology transfer/IP management offices.

39. Existing Initiatives (we have worked with)
the Public-sector Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA),
www.pipra.org, an organization that seeks to facilitate access to intellectual
property in order to foster the development and distribution of improved crops,
for use in developing countries.
The Public Interest Intellectual Property Advisors (PIIPA), www.piipa.org, which seeks
to make intellectual property counsel available, free or pro bono, for developing
countries and public interest organizations, in order to promote agriculture,
biodiversity, traditional knowledge and health care, and
The Centre for the Management of Intellectual Property in Health Research and
Development (MIHR), www.mihr.org, which seeks to promote access to health
technologies in order to improve the well-being of poor people across the globe,
via improved management of innovation and intellectual property in research and
development.

40. Scholarship
Handbook of Best Practices in IP
Management:
• Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation
• 2000 pages, over 150 chapters
• Both paper and web versions
• Subsidized distribution to developing
countries.

42. Freedom to Operate Analysis
• Assist PIPRA in analysis of patent landscapes
relevant to agbiotech to be deployed in
developing countries
• Insect resistant sweet potatoes for equatorial
Africa.
• Implemented as an advanced IP Tools course,
with Professor Jon Cavicchi
• So far, three course and 10 students.

43. Pandemic Influenza Meeting
WIPO, Geneva Switzerland
Organized by MIHR
April 2006
Managing Patents that Impact Global
Access to Influenza Vaccines

45. Technology transfer/IP management
offices
• Educationally support the establishment and survival of
technology transfer offices in developing countries
• Practical implementation of WIPO’s policy statements, which
have stressed the importance of establishing IP institutions in
developing countries.
• Successful institutional relationships leading to the
establishment of technology transfer offices will increase the
potential for technology transfer, development, innovation
and utilization, at the national, and ideally, regional levels.
• Practical way for developing countries to management
biodiversity and traditional knowledge resources.

46. Final
Thoughts

47. This Handbook arises from the premise that
developing the products of science and technology
is of profound public benefit, a benefit that
requires both scientific and industrial participation.
This is a many-faceted concept, yet today we exist
in an era of such pervasive scientific and
technological advance that the development of
these benefits, and their movement into
commerce and among nations, warrant our most
concerned efforts.
Judge Pauline Newman, CAFC

48. Public-Private Partnerships are
needed to share research and
development costs for “pro-poor”
biotechnology.
Professor Norman Borlaug
1970 Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom,
Congressional Gold Medal Recipient

49. Who are our clients?
PIPRA?
MIHR?
Developing country technology
transfer/IP managers?