Bioprospecting in the Arctic - UNU-IAS - United Nations University

5. Patents, Arctic genetic resources and biotechnology
22
A desk top search of the European 143 and US patent
databases 144 has identified thirty one patents and or
patent applications in relation to inventions based on or
derived from the genetic resources of the Arctic. Details
of these patents/patent applications are set out in Table
4 at the end of this report. As shown below in Figure 1
in general terms these can be grouped into seven broad
categories as follows ∗ :
(1) Enzymes with life science research applications in
DNA research: This category constitutes 34% of the
patents/patent applications identified;
(2) Medicines and pharmaceuticals: This category
constitutes 23% of patents/patent applications
identified;
(3) Cosmetics and skin care: This category constitutes
10% of patents/patent applications identified;
(4) Nutraceuticals, dietary supplements and other health
products: This category constitutes 10% of patents/
patent applications identified;
(5) Animal health products including aquaculture:
This category constitutes 10% of patents/patent
applications identified;
(6) Food technology: This category also constitutes 10%
of patents/patent applications identified;
(7) Enzymes with industrial applications: This category
constitutes 3% of patents identified.
Figure 1: Patents/patent applications based on Arctic genetic resources by category
Enzymes with life
science research
applications
34%
Cosmetics and
skin care
10%
Enzymes with
industrial
applications
3%
Some of the patents identified arguably fit into more
than one broad category as the claims made in the
patent/patent application often identified more than
one potential use for the invention. For the purposes
of this study though, after examination of each patent,
a dominant category was selected and the patent
allocated to that category. Thus for example most of
the patents in the Enzymes with life science research
applications category also listed potential industrial
and commercial applications in the claims made in the
patent/patent application and could have also been
included in the Enzymes with industrial applications
category. But a review of these patents suggest the
former, rather than the later, is the dominant theme of
the patent and accordingly they were allocated to the
Enzymes with life science research applications. Thus the
allocations to specific categories presented in Figure 1
are indicative of general trends only.
Nutraceuticals,
dietary supplements
and other health
products
10%
Food technology
10%
Medicines and
pharmaceuticals
23%
Animal health care
products including
aquaculture
10%
Figure 2 below highlights that the major jurisdiction
for patents and or patent applications in relation
to inventions based on or derived from the genetic
resources of the Arctic is the USA (66%) and to a
lesser extent European jurisdictions (combined total
18%). One point worth noting is that 10% of these
patents/patent applications have been filed in Russia a
jurisdiction which does not usually figure prominently
in patent figures. This exceeds the number of patents/
patent applications filed in Japan. However, given the
small sample size it is unclear if this discrepancy is of
significance. No patents were identified in the Arctic
jurisdictions of Canada, Sweden, or Denmark.
One interesting aspect of the figures is that contrary
to trends observed in company R&D and product
focus noted above, the most significant proportion of
the patents/ patent applications relate to inventions
relating to enzymes (both in the Enzymes with life science
∗ Given the small sample size these figures should be approached with caution indicative only of general trends.