The genetic resources and traditional knowledge accumulated by some underdeveloped countries and regions have been stolen and utilized by some foreign companies and institutions for free. Biological resources and traditional knowledge are showing their value more and more in modern society, and biological piracy is becoming more and more rampant. Edmonds College, headquartered in the United States, published a report, citing more than 3 examples of Western pharmaceutical, horticultural and cosmetic companies "stealing" African plants. After analyzing this, the Observer revealed that seven patents approved by the British authorities faced the above allegations, and the patents applied by Syngenta were among them.
Beth, head of edmonds College? Burrows said: "The time when westerners traveled all over Africa or South America and grabbed whatever they wanted in exchange for commercial interests is gone forever. Now there is a new kind of colonial plunder. Plants and intellectual property rights should also be protected, just as the ownership of oil is generally recognized internationally. " Traditional knowledge is easy to obtain, so it is also easy to be pirated. It is very common that Indian traditional knowledge is pirated internationally, because these traditional knowledge exists in Sanskrit or other local languages, and the patent office can't regard these traditional knowledge information as existing technology, so the relevant patent application is authorized.
In p>1995, two exiled Indians obtained an American patent on the use of turmeric root to heal wounds at Mississippi Medical Center University. India's New Delhi Science and Industry Retrieval Committee submitted a reexamination application to the US Patent and Trademark Office, pointing out that the patent belongs to the existing technology. The United States Patent and Trademark Office learned that the contents of the application had been used in India for centuries, confirmed that the application was not novel and declared the patent invalid in 1997.