Patents spur technological innovation; often, patented technologies have helped diminish the impact of some of the worlds most pressing concerns: from population growth, to world hunger, to global warming. A more contentious side of patents has emerged within the last several decades as more information is gathered on the sources and origins of biotechnological patents, evidencing misappropriation of traditional knowledge and resources, biopiracy. Biopiracy has been studied in detail for the social justice implications of wrongfully acquiring property of indigenous and traditional groups, but the literature is nearly void of the ecological implications of different patent regimes. International treaties and discussions have addressed the need to combat biopiracy and enable appropriate mechanisms of benefit sharing, but the implementation and success of laws and regulations guided by the treaties on a national level have been varied and inadequately quantified. This comment explores the international agreements governing intellectual property and access to natural resources, and examines how such agreements have been enacted in three countries: the United States, India, and Brazil. This comment then draws connections between the laws and policies of each country and their ecological environment. The goal of this comment is to draw attention to the direct ecological impact of patent laws in each country and the different national approaches to combat biopiracy. This comment will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the variety of approaches and suggest ways to move forward with patent law and alternative mechanisms that are more conducive to balancing private property rights and technological innovation with biodiversity conservation and social justice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-06102014-175318 |
| Date | 26 June 2014 |
| Creators | Leary, Alyssa |
| Contributors | Steve Siebert, Matt McKinney, Kristen Juras, Chris Servheen |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-06102014-175318/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds