Intellectual Property Rights, Biosafety and Bioethics

Introduction to intellectual property; types of IP: patents, trademarks, copyright & related rights, industrial design, traditional knowledge, geographical indications, protection of new GMOs; International framework for the protection of IP; IP as a factor in R&D; IPs of relevance to biotechnology and few case studies; introduction to history of GATT, WTO, WIPO and TRIPS; plant variety protection and farmers rights act; concept of ‘prior art’: invention in context of “prior art”; patent databases - country-wise patent searches (USPTO, EPO, India); analysis and report formation.

Basics of patents: types of patents; Indian Patent Act 1970; recent amendments; WIPO Treaties; Budapest Treaty; Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and implications; procedure for filing a PCT application; role of a Country Patent Office; filing of a patent application; precautions before patenting-disclosure/non-disclosure - patent application- forms and guidelines including those of National Bio-diversity Authority (NBA) and other regulatory bodies, fee structure, time frames; types of patent applications: provisional and complete specifications; PCT and conventional patent applications; international patenting-requirement, procedures and costs; financial assistance for patenting-introduction to existing schemes; publication of patents-gazette of India, status in Europe and US; patent infringement- meaning, scope, litigation, case studies and examples; commercialization of patented innovations; licensing – outright sale, licensing, royalty; patenting by research students and scientists-university/organizational rules in India and abroad, collaborative research - backward and forward IP; benefit/credit sharing among parties/community, commercial (financial) and non-commercial incentives.

Biosafety and Biosecurity - introduction; historical background; introduction to biological safety cabinets; primary containment for biohazards; biosafety levels; GRAS organisms, biosafety levels of specific microorganisms; recommended biosafety levels for infectious agents and infected animals; definition of GMOs & LMOs; principles of safety assessment of transgenic plants – sequential steps in risk assessment; concepts of familiarity and substantial equivalence; risk – environmental risk assessment and food and feed safety assessment; problem formulation – protection goals, compilation of relevant information, risk characterization and development of analysis plan; risk assessment of transgenic crops vs cisgenic plants or products derived from RNAi, genome editing tools.

       International regulations – Cartagena protocol, OECD consensus documents and Codex Alimentarius; Indian regulations – EPA act and rules, guidance documents, regulatory framework – RCGM, GEAC, IBSC and other regulatory bodies; Draft bill of Biotechnology Regulatory authority of India - containments – biosafety levels and category of rDNA experiments; field trails – biosafety research trials – standard operating procedures - guidelines of state governments; GM labeling – Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Introduction, ethical conflicts in biological sciences - interference with nature, bioethics in health care - patient confidentiality, informed consent, euthanasia, artificial reproductive technologies, prenatal diagnosis, genetic screening, gene therapy, transplantation. Bioethics in research – cloning and stem cell research, Human and animal experimentation, animal rights/welfare, Agricultural biotechnology - Genetically engineered food, environmental risk, labeling and public opinion. Sharing benefits and protecting future generations - Protection of environment and biodiversity – biopiracy.