Today’s Pirates: Biopiracy, biotech, and the international frameworks that are not up to the challenge.

This paper analyzes biopiracy and its effects on Indigenous populations through case studies on specific incidences of biopiracy, and an analysis of modern day agro-neocolonialism, seed piracy, and advances in biotech that are changing modern patent landscapes. This paper suggests that current international frameworks are failing to defend against widespread biopiracy due to ineffective cross-cultural application of relevant treaties and differing domestic approaches to intellectual property frameworks. This paper examines the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, The Convention on Biological Diversity, The Bonn Guidelines, and The Nagoya Protocol. This paper then makes suggestions for the international community as a whole and for the United States on how to protect against future threats of biopiracy, including technological advancements, such as Digital Sequencing Information (DNA sequencing/synthesis) and CRISPR-Cas9.