It is a grant made by the government to an inventor, conveying and securing him the exclusive right to make, use and sell his invention for a term of 20 years. It is granted for an invention that is new and useful. Invention may be a new or improved product or process that is capable…
This comprehensive and influential international agreement establishes minimum standards on IP rights. By providing more stringent patent protection, TRIPS will help to generate increased profits for patent holders on new technologies, which are largely with industrialized countries and multinational corporations. Industrialized countries account for over 90 per cent of global research and development and the…
Being intangible, IP is existential only on account of the legal rules and laws that enforce it. Due to the unique and fragile nature of IP rights and their possible exploitation the world over, nations making progress industrially and scientifically took cognizance of the need to protect these rights by bringing about the necessary legislations…
The concept of putting identification marks related to source on the articles of trade, especially merchandise taken across geographic borders is very ancient. Prehistoric earthen pots, coins, stone tablets, etc., mention such a practice, and there are claims from several parts of the world of having literary references to the practice of bestowing special privileges…
The term “property” refers to ownership or appropriation of an object by an individual to the exclusion of rest of society. This right, fostered and protected by law, entitles one to the exclusive use, enjoyment and disposal of the object, and others accept this and are duty bound not to interfere with this right. The…
Plant biotechnology includes applications of technological tools in plant sciences. Several significant achievements in plant biology such as cell and tissue culture, regeneration of whole plants from somatic cells, and genetic recombination have resulted in applications such as rapid propagation, developing uniform healthy plant saplings, somatic hybrids from naturally incompatible species, germ plasm storage, improved transgenic…
One of the major challenges facing large-scale production of secondary metabolites in culture is the tendency of the cultured cells to accumulate the biosynthetic products intracellularly. There have been attempts to permeabilize cell walls of the cultured cells to enable release. This has been tried with DMSO, making media acidic and even with physical treatments…
Since many secondary metabolites are generated in plants in response to external stimuli that may be physical, chemical, or microbial, in cultures, many fungal, yeast extracts and a number of organic and inorganic compounds have been found to induce secondary metabolite formation in cell and organ cultures. It appears that these elicitors may be giving the right…
Secondary metabolite production is greatly influenced by other culture conditions that need to be identified and optimized for maximum production. Intensity of light and wavelength used has an influence over secondary metabolite production. In cultures of Dioscorea deltoidea, while blue light stimulated alkaloid production, red light decreased it. Similar reports are associated with cell culture accumulation of…
Several Cinchona species are sources of the anti-malarial drug quinine and anti-arrhythmic drug quinidine and other related alkaloids. Quinine remains an important anti-malarial drug and economic production of quinine and related alkaloids from tissue culture is of high commercial value. There has not been much success, however, in their production in cell culture as was…