Biopiracy and Patents - Ethical Issues - Unsolved Practice Set

Q1. Biopiracy refers to:

1. The legal and fair use of a country's biological resources with proper compensation
2. The unauthorised use or exploitation of a country's biological resources or traditional knowledge, without proper permission or fair compensation
3. The complete destruction of biodiversity in a region
4. A method of biological pest control

Q2. Which of the following has been cited as an example of a biopiracy-related controversy involving India?

1. The Basmati rice patent case
2. The invention of penicillin
3. The discovery of DNA structure
4. The development of the polio vaccine

Q3. A patent is best described as a form of legal protection that grants:

1. Free and unrestricted access to an invention for everyone
2. The inventor exclusive rights over a novel invention for a specified period, preventing unauthorised use by others
3. No rights to the inventor at all
4. Automatic ownership of all future related inventions

Q4. Traditional knowledge, such as the medicinal use of turmeric or neem in India, became a focus of biopiracy concerns when:

1. This knowledge was patented internationally without recognising its prior traditional use
2. This knowledge was freely shared with no patent claims at all
3. No one showed any interest in these plants
4. These plants had no known medicinal properties

Q5. India's Biological Diversity Act, enacted to help protect the country's biological resources and traditional knowledge, was passed in the year:

1. 1991
2. 2002
3. 2010
4. 2015