Module II: The Fundamentals of Bioprospecting Negotiations
Constructing a Contractual Agreement for Benefit Sharing

The essence of a bioprospecting agreement is in defining and allocating the various rights and benefits to be conferred. The primary rights include:

• the right to access the natural resources; and
• intellectual property rights pertaining to any resulting innovations.

Types of benefits include:

• economic benefits;
• capacity building (training and technology transfer);
• scientific benefits (data sharing, species inventories); and
• promise of future supply (continued access to resource in the event of successful research).

All rights and benefits are subject to negotiation, and their exact distribution will vary from agreement to agreement. Benefit sharing does not necessarily have any effect on intellectual property rights, although decisions about IPR can be included in any agreement.