Amazon Nations gear up to fight Biopiracy.

Around 500 products based on plants native to Peru are registered in patent offices in the U.S.,Europe & Japan.Many of them may have been produced by breaking Peruvian laws on access to biodiversity and traditional knowledge.
At the first meeting of IP officials from eight Amazon basin countries held in Rio-de-Janeiro between June 30 to July 1st,this complaint was voiced that these hundreds of products were derived from just seven native plants from Peru.

The stastics of the number of products based on native Peruvian plants came from a study by a commission set up by the Peruvian govt. to examine patent registries in Europe,Japan and the United States.
Of the 500 products,two or three cases of proven legal infractions will be selected to demand the revocation of patents,and the success of this first step will set a precedent.

Biopiracy is defined as biological theft or the unauthorised and uncompensated collection of indigenious plants,animals,microorganisms,genes or traditional communities' knowledge on biological resources by corporations that patent them for their own use.
The meeting of intellectual property officials,which was sponsored by Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation(ACTO) was a first step towards the sharing and exchange of Information on biopiracy,cooperation and international negotiations on patents.