[Pirateninfo] Cupuaucu News

[pcl at jpberlin.de]

Von: 
http://internacional.radiobras.gov.br/ingles/materia_i_2004.php?materi
a=239996&q=1&editoria=

Prosecutor says international rules have to be adapted to prevent 
biopiracy
13:51 
Thaís Brianezi
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Manaus - The problem of biopiracy and improper registration of 
traditional knowledge pertaining to communities in the Amazon will 
only be resolved through changes that give internal consistency to 
the international rules that regulate intellectual property and the 
economic utilization of biological diversity. This idea was defended 
by Juliana Santili, a prosecutor with the Public Defense Ministry of 
the Federal District, at the II Seminar on Intellectual Property, 
Science, and Traditional Knowledge of the Amazon," an event that 
ended on Wednesday (14) in the city of Manaus, in northern Brazil. 
The seminar was organized by the National Research Institute of 
Amazônia (INPA).

Brazil is a signatory of the Biological Diversity Convention (BDC), 
established in 1992. It determines that access to biodiversity and 
associated knowledge can only be conferred with the prior and 
informed consent of the communities involved and with mechanisms for 
sharing the benefits of this research or the economic application of 
these resources.

Santili cited "cupulate" (chocolate made from cupuassu) as a classic 
example of biopiracy. According to her, a Japanese firm, Asahi Foods, 
registered the "cupulate" brand name and the process of extracting 
oil from cupuassu seeds with the Japanese Patent Office. 

"Brazil mobilized in force to reverse this decision. The brand name 
patent was broken. But the patent for the production process, 
initially developed by the Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research 
Enterprise), continues to be protected by the Japonese," she 
lamented. This means that, in practice, no other company can use this 
process in Japan without paying royalties to Asahi Foods. 

"Intellectual property must fulfill its socio-environmental 
function," the prosecutor insisted. In her opinion, this issue will 
be the focus of debates at the Conference of Parties to the 
Biological Diversity Convention, a meeting held every two years among 
representatives of the BDC signatory nations. The event is scheduled 
to take place in Curitiba, in southern Brazil, in March, 2006. 

The II Seminar on Intellectual Property, Science, and Traditional 
Knowledge of the Amazon was attended by around 250 people, including 
experts and others interested in the topic.

Translation: David Silberstein