Avaliação da atividade de patenteamento em biotecnologia no Brasil no período de 1996 a 2007

Abstract

Brazil has developed, over the last 50 years, competitive academic capabilities and has advanced consistently in the training of human resources. The country currently ranks 13th in the world classification of scientific publishing representing 2,12% of global production. In 2007, President da Silva signed a decree outlining the National Policy for Biotechnology Development which promotes, among other actions, intellectual property protection among biotech entrepreneurs and scientists, fostering innovation and competitiveness. This study investigates, thereby, the levels and patterns of biotechnology patenting in Brazil by examining patent applications in the Brazilian Patent Office (Instituto Nacional de Propriedade Industrial, INPI) as well as PCT applications from 1996 to 2007. Biotechnology-related patents were determined according to a list of biotechnology International Patent Classification (IPC) codes provided by the OECD. Subclass C12N was considered the most representative of modern biotechnology, encompassing mainly genetic engineering and manipulation of microorganisms. We analyzed total number of patents and how they evolved over time in terms of ownership structure (domestic or foreign-own) and country of origin. To determine which domestic sector owns the most patents we classified national assignees into six categories, as follows: universities and research institutes; state-owned firms; funding agencies; individuals; government and private firms. 20.500 patent applications were identified from 1996 to 2007, an average of 600 applications per year. Almost 97% of applicants were foreigners. The top-patenting countries at the Brazilian Patent Office were United States (43,7%), Germany (10,0%), Japan (5,6%), France (5,1%) and Switzerland (5,1%). Biotechnology patents in Brazil are predominantly owned by universities and research institutions (47,9%). Individuals come in second, with 16,5% of patent applications, a high number for a science-based sector. Only 15,3% of patents were assigned to private firms. This distribution differs considerably from other countries such as United States and Germany, in which private firms are the main patenters. This study demonstrated (1) the low domestic patenting activity compared to the national scientific production in this area; (2) the confinement of biotechnological knowledge inside universities and research centers, indicating that a well managed public-private cooperation will be key to the commercialization of biotech innovations in the country.