05 February 2010
	PATENTS Biopirates beware By Matthew Hill

Shiver me timbers. If it's not Somalian pirates raiding ships off the Gulf of Aden, it's German pirates pillaging your flora. Last week, SA lawyer Mariam Mayet won a case in Munich, Germany, voiding a patent on two varieties of pelargonium - sidoides and reniforme - which grow only in the Eastern Cape, Lesotho and parts of the Free State. The plant is used to treat respiratory infections and Dr Willmar Schwabe of Schwabe Pharmaceuticals patented two species of the pelargonium and started marketing a pelargonium-based product in Germany. Pelargonium About 339m plants have been exported Mayet was representing the Eastern Cape community of Alice, located near Fort Beaufort, where she says wild populations of the plant have been decimated. The victory is a significant one, as Mayet says it's the first time an African group has challenged a patent for traditional knowledge, never mind winning the challenge. "It [the victory] considerably shifts the balance of power in favour of the community for any future cases," says Mayet, who is a director at the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB), a Johannesburg-based NGO concerned with genetic engineering, biosafety and biopiracy on the continent. The case was heard by the opposition division of the European Patent Office. Says Mayet: "Now we're saying, let's interrogate the paradigm [of] SA [allowing] international companies to take resources out of our country for nothing, giving nothing in return." She adds that many companies, including Schwabe, have been employing members of rural communities like Alice as cheap labour to harvest wild pelargonium, which has led to the near extinction of the plant in the wild. ACB and the Alice community are considering taking further legal action against Schwabe. "This is only the beginning of a long struggle. We will take legal advice now," Mayet says. According to her, 339m plants have been exported over the past eight years. A bottle of the medicine made from pelargonium retails for about à30, and is so popular that it's in "every German household where there are children". WHAT IT MEANS First African victory in traditional-knowledge case German patent of SA plant voided Ironically, the case doesn't prevent Schwabe from selling the product or exporting the plants out of SA. It only means the company can't market it exclusively - opening up the market for competition, which could, in fact, worsen the depletion of the plant in the wild. But Mayet says the victory will raise awareness from the SA government, which has "not done enough for the species and to stem the illegal trade in it".