Many of the nearly 500 products containing Peruvian plants that have been patented by corporations in the United States, Europe, and Japan are not in accordance with Peruvian laws regarding intellectual property rights, Peru's National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property said July 4.
In a report on patent distribution, the institute found that seven plants native only to Peru were used in the products studied. The organization will investigate whether or not the patents for those products were obtained legally in accordance with Peruvian guidelines. Peru accused international corporations of biopiracy for collecting "indigenous plants, animals, microorganisms, genes or traditional communities' knowledge of biological resources" without authorization or compensation.
The information was released at a meeting of Amazon nations in Brazil that took place June 30-July 1. The institute intends to challenge one or two of the illegal patents in order to set a precedent as part of its 2002 resolution to protect indigenous knowledge of biology.
