The Bioprospecting Review and Intellectual Property Law Reform Distinguished - Access and Benefits
While this paper considers a number of intellectual property issues associated with bioprospecting, it is important to note that the review of New Zealand's policy framework for the regulation of bioprospecting activities is a separate exercise and distinct from the reform of New Zealand's intellectual property rights statutes. Submission processes have, for example, recently closed in the reviews of the Patents Act 1953 and the Plant Variety Rights Act 1987.
The information provided here is to put the bioprospecting review in context and to provide an example of one of the benefits that may result from bioprospecting activity.
There are, however, a number of changes to patent law being considered internationally, designed to ensure the disclosure of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge in patent applications and thereby realise the access and benefit-sharing objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). As New Zealand does not have a formal access and benefit-sharing regime the current reviews of the Patents Act and the Plant Variety Rights Acts have not considered this issue. The outcome of the current bioprospecting review will be instructive in this regard.
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