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Bio-piracy

Definition

Bio-piracy is the practice of commercially exploiting naturally occurring biochemical or genetic material, especially by obtaining patents that restrict its future use, while failing to pay fair compensation to the community from which it originates.

Analogy

Imagine you're at a party and someone brings a unique homemade dish. Everyone loves it and wants the recipe. Instead of asking for it, one person secretly figures out the ingredients, makes their own version, and starts selling it without giving any credit or compensation to the original cook. That's bio-piracy in a nutshell!

Related terms

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR): These are legal rights that provide creators protection for their inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

Patent: A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention – a product or process that provides a new way of doing something or offers a new technical solution to a problem.

Bioprospecting: This refers to the exploration of biodiversity for commercially valuable genetic and biochemical resources.