Indian patent applications and the Biological Diversity Act

Recently the Indian Patent Office (IPO), while examining Indian patent applications, has been taking into account certain provisions of the Biological Diversity Act (2002) (BD Act) for the inventions that use biological resources originating from India. This is more common for patent applications in the field of life sciences.

The BD Act came into effect from 1 October 2003 with the constitution of the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), which is empowered to enforce and regulate the provisions of the act.

The objectives of the act broadly can be stated as: the conservation of biodiversity of India, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of utilisation of biological resources, knowledge and for matters connected with or incidental to these factors.

Rajeev Kumar is the head of the science group, and Vivek Kashyap is a senior associate at LexOrbis