Trips: Patenting of Biotechnological Inventions

Granting of intellectual property rights on biological materials could be very contentious issue from cultural, legal, ethical and religious points of view. This could be even more complicated, once it acquires an international dimension. The Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) is the latest international arrangement under which, a complex structure for international protection of intellectual property rights has been created. However, while it embodies some provisions of pervious international documents on intellectual property rights, it reflects a unique and unprecedented scheme of protection of intellectual property rights, which also highlights a tension between developed and developing countries especially over the patentability of biological inventions. The provisions of TRIPs make it difficult for developing countries to deny such protection. However, it is possible for them to limit the scope of such protection by relying on exceptions provided by TRIPs and also by relying on the distinction between invention and discovery. These strategies would allow developing countries to exercise some discretion in defining the scope of patentable biotechnologies.