鈥淚NTERNATIONAL Piracy Rights鈥� is how environmental activist Vandana Shiva
describes the global legislation governing patents in Protect or Plunder?
Understanding Intellectual Property Rights (Zed, 拢9.99). Reading this
passionately argued book, you鈥檇 be hard put not to agree with her.
Shiva lays out the sorry tale of how the rich countries get richer at the
expense of poorer countries by hijacking not only the rights to profit from
indigenous species, but also local knowledge of how to use those species. She
quotes the attempt to patent India鈥檚 neem tree as a pesticide, even
though people have been using it in this way for thousands of years. Sadly, many
Indians cannot use it at all now: selling neem seeds on the
international market is so profitable not much is available locally.
American law only recognises inventions occurring in the US. So a botanical
cure for hepatitis traditionally used in India can be patented in the US. The
American patent holder may then attempt to stop people using their own remedies.
There鈥檚 another twist: a survey in the US showed that 80 per cent of patents are
taken out to block competitors. None of this helps the promised technology
transfer from North to South, points out Shiva. She is also angry about the
dangers of patenting life itself: cell lines from unwitting patients or a
genetically engineered mouse.
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To grasp the complex business that is modern genetics you need a good guide,
and Colin Tudge is your man.
In Mendel鈥檚 Footnotes (Vintage, 拢8.99) is billed as 鈥渁n
introduction to the science and technologies of genes and genetics from the 19th
century to the 22nd鈥�. Tudge unweaves the tangled strands of science, history and
ethics to show that, as he says, clarity is a virtue, simplicity is a much
underrated property and ethics are rooted in feelings.