Intellectual Property Issues in Biotechnology

Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and
artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.
*Ito ay tumutukoy sa paglikha sa kaisipan, tulad ng mga imbensyon;
pampanitikan at artistikong gawa: disenyo at simbolo, mga pangalan at imahe na
ginagamit sa komersyo.
IP is protected in law by, for example, patents, copyright and trademarks, which enable
people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create. By
striking the right balance between the interests of innovators and the wider public
interest, the IP system aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation
can flourish.
*Ang IP ay protektado ng batas, halimbawa nito ay patents, copyright and
trademarks, na kung saan makakaya ng mga tao to earn recognition o financial
benefit para sa kung ano ang kanilang naimbento at nalikha. Sa pamamagitan ng
pagtama ng tamang balanse sa pagitan ng interes ng mga tao o grupong
nagpapakilala ng mga bagong ideya o produkto at ang malawakang insteres ng
publiko, ang Sistema ng IP ay naglalayong pagyamanin ang kapaligiran na kung
saan ang pagkamalikhain at pagbabago ay mapaunlad.

Biotechnology Intellectual Property Rights

Biotechnology intellectual property rights are the legal ownership of an interest in
a patent, trademark or trade secret. This means that another company cannot use those
assets without permission from the company established as the official owner.
*May karampatang karapatan ang sinumang tunay at orihinal na may-akda sa
bunga ng kanyang talino at pagsisikap. Ibig sabihin nito ay hindi puwedeng
gamitin ng ibang kompanya ang mga ari-arian na walang pahintulot sa
kinauukulan.
Biotechnology intellectual property rights provide health care companies with a means
to protect their claim to and ownership of these assets through common law, state law
or federal law. There is some controversy over intellectual property rights in
biotechnology. Those in favor argue that they provide a key incentive for developers to
innovate because these protections will allow them to be financially rewarded for
successful innovations. Those opposed to the strict enforcement of these protections
argue that broader sharing of information would reduce prices and increase access to
care, especially in developing countries.
*Ang biotechnology intellectual property rights ay tinutugunan ang health care
companies sa pamamagitan ng pagprotekta sa kanilang hinahabol na ari-arian ng
may-ari sa pamamagitan ng common law (refer to property or other legal rights
na kung saan hindi na kinakailangan ng pormal na registration para pwersahin
sila), state law (isang sistema ng patakaran na kung saan binubuo ng lipunan o
gobyerno in order to deal with crime, business agreements, and social
relationships) or federal law (ang kinatawan ng batas ay nililikha ng mga federal
government n gating bansa). Mayroong kontrobersiya over intellectual property
rights sa biotechnology. Yung mga favour argue na kung saan nagproprovide ng
mgaa insentibong susi para magpabago sa mga developers dahil sa proteksyon
ay papayagan sila ay gantimpalaan financially para sa successful innovations.
Para sa sumasalungat sa mga mahigpit na pagpapatupad ng mga protections
argue hat boarder sharing of information ay mabawasan ang presyo at mapataas
ang access sa pangangalaga, especially developing countries.

Types of intellectual property

a) Copyright
Copyright is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary
and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings,
sculpture and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps and
technical drawings.
*Ang copyright ay isang paraan ng pagtatag ng intellectual proper rights.
Tumutugon ito sa may-akda o awtor at iba pang tao na binibigyan ng legal
entities na pinangangalagaan ng bansa. Nagbibigay karapatan ito sa lumikha na
gamitin at ilathala ang kanyang ginawa. Karaniwan ang may-ari lamang ng
copyright ang pinahihintulutang gumawa o kumopya o magbigay pahintulot sa
iba na gawin ito.
Mga halimbawa ng mga karaniwang paglabag
 Cover art para sa mga album ng musika, video game, at aklat.
 Mga larawan para sa pagbebenta mula sa mga pelikula, telebisyon at mga video
game.
 Artwork o mga larawan mula sa komiks, cartoons, mga pelikula, music video o
telebisyon.
 Mga logo ng mga sports team sa college at propesyonal.
 Mga larawan na kinuha mula sa account sa social media ng isang pampublikong
pigura.
b) Patents
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention. Generally speaking, a patent
provides the patent owner with the right to decide how - or whether - the invention can
be used by others. In exchange for this right, the patent owner makes technical
information about the invention publicly available in the published patent document.
*Isang karapatan na ibinigay ng gobyerno upang pagbawalan ang iba na gumawa,
gamitin o ibenta sa iba ang iyong inimbento.
c) Trademarks
A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise
from those of other enterprises. Trademarks date back to ancient times when artisans
used to put their signature or "mark" on their products.
*Ang trademark ay isang salita (o mga salita), isang disenyo, o kombinasyon ng
mga ito na ginagamit upang kilalanin ang mga bagay o mga serbisyo ng isang tao
o organisasyon. Kapag nakuha, ang isang trademark ay nagbibigay sa mga may-
ari ng ekslusibong karapatan sa paggamit ng trademark na may paggalang sa
ilang mga kalakal o serbisyo.
* Ang paglabag sa trademark ay hindi tama o hindi awtorisadong paggamit ng
isang katulad o kaparehong trademark sa isang paraan na malamang ay maging
sanhi ng pagkalito tulad ng sa pinagmulan ng produktong iyon. Kung gumagamit
ang iyong app ng trademark ng ibang party sa paraang posibleng maging sanhi
ng pagkalito, posibleng masuspinde ang application mo.
d) Industrial designs
An industrial design constitutes the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article. A
design may consist of three-dimensional features, such as the shape or surface of an
article, or of two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or color.
*Ito ang itsura ng hugis, configuration, pattern, o ornament (o anumang
kombinasyon) na inaaplay sa isang tapos na bagay na ginawa sa kamay, tool o
makina.
e) Geographical indications
Geographical indications and appellations of origin are signs used on goods that have a
specific geographical origin and possess qualities, a reputation or characteristics that
are essentially attributable to that place of origin. Most commonly, a geographical
indication includes the name of the place of origin of the goods.
*Ito ay ginagamit sa produkto na mayroong specific geographical origin at
nagtataglay ng katangian, reputasyon o mga katangian na mahalagang
maiuugnay sa lugar na pinagmulan. Kasama sa geographical indication ang mga
pangalan ng lugar na pinagmulan ng mga produkto.
f) Trade secrets
Trade secrets are IP rights on confidential information which may be sold or licensed.
The unauthorized acquisition, use or disclosure of such secret information in a manner
contrary to honest commercial practices by others is regarded as an unfair practice and
a violation of the trade secret protection.
*Eto yung mga IP rights sa mga impormasyong konpidensyal na maaaring
naibenta o lisensyado. Ang hindi awtorisadong pagkuha, paggamit o pagsisiwalat
ng mga sekretong impormasyon sa isang paraang salungat sa totoong komersyal
na nakasanayan, para sa iba ay itinuturing na hindi patas na kasanayan at isang
paglabag sa trade secret protection.
Protection of intellectual property and trade secrets
Inventors, designers, developers and authors can protect the ideas they have
developed, for instance by means of copyright or patents. The aim is to prevent others
from wrongly profiting from their creations or inventions. It also gives them an
opportunity to earn back the money they invested in developing a product.
*So para sa mga imbentor, designers, developers at mga authors ay maari ng
maprotektahan ang kanilang mga ideas na kanilang nadevelop o nagawa/nabuo.
Ang layunin nito ay para maiwasan na iba ang nakikinabang sa kanilang
creations or inventions. Ito rin ay nagbibigay sa kanila ng opportunity para
maibalik ang kanilang pera na kanilang nainvest sa pagbuo ng kanilang produkto.

Type of intellectual property rights is most common in biotechnology

 Patents are the most common form of IP protection for biotech inventions. While
patent protection provides one form of protection against IP theft, many situations
exist where patent protection remains ineffective and strong trade secret
protection is needed.
*Ang pinakapangkaraniwang uri ng inetellectual property protection for biotech
inventions ay ang patents. Dahil ito ay nagproprovide ng form of protection
against IP theft (pagnanakaw), maraming sitwasyon na ang nageexist na kung
saan ang patent protection ay nananatiling hindi epektibo and strong trade secret
is needed.

Biotechnology Intellectual Property Rights Examples

Here is one example of how intellectual property rights work in the health care industry.
 Federal protection allows companies to use the ® symbol with a trade name to
indicate that it has a registered trademark and that no one else can use that
name. More than one company may sell the same chemical compound, which
 means the same drug, but only one company can legally use the trademarked
name to market that drug.

 For example, while many companies sell the antidepressant drug fluoxetine
hydrochloride, only Eli Lilly can call it Prozac. Likewise, only Hoffmann-La Roche
can use the trademarked name Tamiflu to market a drug called Oseltamivir that
is designed to prevent and treat influenza. Trademarks aren’t just used with
drugs, however; they’re also used with hospital names, physician practice
names, and other entities with distinct branding. This is of major importance to
companies in this business environment, where branding, marketing, and image
are central components of business operations and strategic positioning. Some
studies estimate that pharmaceutical companies spend as much as $30 billion on
marketing annually to raise brand awareness for their drugs.

 As another example, biotechnology companies use patents to protect their

intellectual property rights to drug delivery devices. AstraZeneca owns the
intellectual property rights to the Symbicort Turbuhaler, which is the drug
budesonide/formoterol in a dry powder inhaler for the maintenance treatment of
asthma and COPD. Other health care companies use patents to protect their
intellectual property rights to devices such as splints, prostheses, vision testing
machines and the computer systems used in health care management.

Real-World Example of Intellectual Property

In 2017, there was a widely publicized intellectual property case in which a company
called Waymo sued Uber over alleged stealing and implementation of technology
relating to Waymo's self-driving car program. The plans for the technology, although not
yet completely viable, constituted significant intellectual property for Waymo. When they
alleged that Uber had obtained their intellectual property, they were able to take action
through the court system to attempt to keep Uber from utilizing the information to
enhance their own self-driving car program.

Why GMO companies are granted patents?

Patent rights on novel inventions are authorized by the US Constitution. The
purpose of the patent system is to give inventors a period of exclusivity for commercial
development of products, thereby encouraging innovation. The discovery, development,
and authorization of a new GMO plant costs $136 million on average, and companies
would not have been willing to make such investment without a period of exclusivity and
profitability granted. But in the long run, the patent rights are not intended to be given at
the price of public interest.
Utility and plant patents have a patent term of 20 years from the initial filing, so
GMO patents protect a marketed product for about 15 to 20 years after the time of
product development (see Figure 1). For instance, Monsanto’s Roundup Ready
soybeans launched in 1996, and US Patent Nos. 5,352,605 and RE39,247, the core
patents underpinning the product, expired in 2011 and 2014, respectively. After a patent
expires, the invention becomes public knowledge to which other companies, farmers,
and other interested parties have free access. At that time, the GMO can be mass-
reproduced and the underlying genetic design can be utilized by anyone to develop
improved versions of the GMO. This eventual free access is one way in which GMOs
developed by private companies could bring about public benefit

Figure 1. The timeline of typical transgenic GMO patents. In the U.S., the patent term is
20 years from the initial filing.
What is covered by the GMO patents?
At first sight, GMO patents should protect GMO plants. Among the wide
spectrum of inventions covered by US patent law, plants are indeed patent-eligible. As
long as one discovers or invents a new plant in a cultivated state and is able to
asexually reproduce it, he or she may obtain a patent on the plant. Congress passed
the Plant Patent Act in 1930 as a result of plant breeding and other agricultural efforts,
making new plant strains derived from crossbreeding patentable. Since then, the act
has also incorporated plants produced from modern biotechnological methods, such as
integration of foreign DNA into plant genomes.
Interestingly, GMO companies often don’t seek plant patents for their plants and
seeds. Instead, they obtain utility patents, a different type of patent with more stringent
requirements on the description of the invention. While plants discovered by chance or
generated by crossbreeding oftentimes don’t satisfy these requirements, detailed
information of GMOs at the molecular level is usually available. Utility patents have
several advantages over plant patents. First, utility patents may cover inventions
beyond plants. If a GMO involves integration of novel, foreign DNA into the plant
genome, the uniquely designed DNA can also be protected by utility patents. Second,
utility patents provide better protection against infringement. As seen in the Supreme
Court case Bowman v. Monsanto, utility patents prohibit the replanting of seeds
harvested from a licensed plant. In contrast, plant patents allow licensees to sexually
reproduce indefinitely, as long as they don’t provide or sell the seeds to others for
planting. Therefore, utility patents provide more extensive protection for GMO plants.

Raising awareness of IP

 World IP Day

On April 26 every year we celebrate World Intellectual Property Day to promote

discussion of the role of IP in encouraging innovation and creativity.

 WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Magazine

Subscribe for free to read stories, articles and interviews showing IP, innovation and
creativity at work across the world. (Available in English, French and Spanish).

 Tools for public outreach

Our outreach tools are free resources to assist IP offices and organizations in planning
and implementing public campaigns to build better understanding and use of IP.

 WIPO awards

The awards program helps our member states foster a culture in which innovation and
creativity are celebrated. All nominations are submitted through national IP offices.

Intellectual Property and

 1. Frontier Technologies - Find out how frontier technologies, including AI, are
changing how we do business, how we innovate and create.
The last two decades have seen an explosion of technologies that are transforming how
we work and live in an increasingly interconnected digital world. The emergence and
merging of frontier technologies is at the heart of what is sometimes termed Fourth
Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0. Frontier technologies are changing how we do
business, how we innovate and create and the rate of change is increasing
exponentially.
Frontier technologies provide opportunities for economic growth. In order to harness
these opportunities for all, we need to ensure that the intellectual property (IP) system
continues to foster innovation and creation and that the systems for IP administration
evolve.
 Technology focus
These are just a few areas of WIPO’s work on IP and Frontier Technologies in our
expanding scope.
Artificial Intelligence
The growth of AI across a range of technical fields raises a number of policy questions
with respect to IP. The main focus of those questions is whether the existing IP system
needs to be modified to provide balanced protection for machine created works and
inventions, AI itself and the data AI relies on to operate.
Blockchain Technology
The Committee on WIPO Standards (CWS) established a Blockchain Taskforce in 2018
to explore, amongst others, the possibility of using blockchain technology for IP
administration, collect information about IPO blockchain initiatives and prepare a
proposal for a new WIPO standard applying blockchain technology.
AI in IP administration
In the global innovation economy, demand for IP rights – patents, trademarks, industrial
designs and copyright – is rapidly increasing and becoming more complex. AI, big data
analytics and new technologies such as blockchain can be used to address the growing
challenges facing IP offices.

2. Gender equality - Men and women are equally as creative and innovative. Yet,
women remain under-represented in many areas. Find out how WIPO works to
tackle this issue.
Human innovation and creativity are the engines of progress. Since the beginning of
time, female and male innovators and creators from all walks of life have transformed
our world through the power of their imagination and ingenuity. However, some groups
remain severely under-represented in many areas of intellectual property (IP) use. Their
innovative potential is underutilized at a time when we need the widest possible range
of talents is needed to solve the pressing problems facing humanity.

The challenge – Insufficient data and persisting gender gaps

Disparities exist on the use of the IP system by women and other groups. WIPO is
working to bridge them. 2020 statistics reveal that only 16.5 percent of inventors named
in international patent applications were women. While numbers are going in the right
direction, progress is slow. WIPO estimates that, at the current pace, parity amongst
PCT-listed inventors will only be reached in 2058.

3. Sustainable Development Goals - IP is a critical incentive for innovation and

creativity, which in turn are key to the United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) success.
Stories of how individual inventors, companies and other organizations find solutions to
social, economic, health and environmental challenges are a powerful reminder of our
collective capacity to achieve the SDGs and the role that IP rights play in this.

Intellectual Proper for

 Business - An understanding of intellectual property (IP) can help your business
become more competitive and manage IP related risks.

The IP system has an important role to play in helping you:

a. protect innovative products and services;
b. increase the visibility, attractiveness and value of your products on the market;
c. distinguish your business and its products from the competition;
d. access technical and business information and knowledge;
e. avoid the risk of unknowingly using third party proprietary content or
inadvertently losing your own valuable information, innovations or creative
output.

Expanding your business with IP rights

It is important to understand the economic value of your IP assets by carrying out an IP
valuation. Having an idea of how much your assets may be worth will be helpful for
various transactions including licensing, sale, donation of IP rights or entering into joint
ventures and other collaborative arrangements.
 Securing financing
There are various ways to monetize and leverage IP assets to obtain financing.
Including information about IP rights in a business plan can help you obtain the funds
needed to launch or expand.

 Entering foreign markets

IP rights are only available in the country/region in which they are granted. Before
expanding your business abroad, obtain the necessary rights to ensure that you
maintain your competitive advantage in foreign markets.

 Settling disputes
Despite the best of efforts, IP disputes unfortunately can arise and may result in legal
proceedings, demands to cease using an IP asset, and/or compensation payments.

 Universities - Universities and public research institutions are the factories of the
knowledge economy.
Intellectual property (IP) adds another mechanism for universities to disseminate the
knowledge that they generate and to have that knowledge used in the economic sector.

 Judiciaries - WIPO supports judiciaries in dealing with the novel legal questions
that often arise from intellectual property (IP) disputes in a rapidly changing
technological environment. The WIPO Judicial Institute and relevant WIPO
sectors work with judges from around the world to create a space for dialogue
and exchange of information and practices, to deliver capacity building activities,
and to increase the availability of information about IP and courts.