Peru protests patent application in Japan

By Espinosa Bellido Abogados

The National Commission against Biopiracy has filed an observation within the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) against a patent application related to the pasuchaca, a biological resource of Peruvian origin.

Towa Corporation requested before the JPO a patent under the name "Agent to increase HDL cholesterol levels", which refers to an extract from the pasuchaca, a perennial plant that grows as a bush along the hillsides and Andes mountains in Peru, used by Indian tribes of the Peruvian Andes as a natural remedy.

The National Commission against Biopiracy, chaired by the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) of Peru, determined that such patent application is undue because it lacks an inventive level, one of the requirements for patentability required by Japanese patent law.

An observation to the JPO was presented through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was informed by the JPO that the patent application related to the pasuchaca has not yet been examined and that the examination will take into account the submitted observation by Peru.