Biodiversity and intellectual property rights

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 1992 and the Agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) 1993 as a part of WTO are in force and are legally binding instruments on the parties thereto Whereas the main objective of the TRIPs is to recognise and protect monopolistic and private intellectual property rights (IPRs) held mainly by multinational corporations (MNCs), the CBD aims to conserve, sustainably use and share benefits of biological resources arising out of such use equitably in which the developing countries are the main holders. The TRIPs looks at individual rights while the CBD aims to encourage recognition of collective rights of communities.