Economists have long made the case that regulations foster greater innovation by business players. This apparently also applies to businesses involved in the wildlife trade, new research suggests. In their recently published study, researchers from the University of Oxford in the U.K. found that stricter regulations haven’t led to a reduction in patents filed for products made from animal parts. This includes rhino horns and pangolin scales, both of which are banned from being traded internationally. Co-lead author Amy Hinsley attributed the finding to a lack of awareness of regulations or a belief that they might change in the future. “Businesses thinking about their long-term strategies might see patenting of an illegal product as worth it if they think the law will change again before the patent expires,” Hinsley, a research fellow and co-director of the Oxford Martin Program on Wildlife Trade, told Mongabay in an email interview. The study also found that the rate at which patents were filed for products made from animal parts was much higher than the universal rate of patent filing. The team used machine-learning techniques to scrape through and analyze patents filed between 1970 and 2020. They looked at patents filed for products from six animal groups — rhinos, pangolins, sturgeons, horseshoe crabs, caterpillar fungi and bears — to identify trends in how and where wildlife parts are being used for commercial purposes. While many products for which patents have been filed might not be in markets yet, the filings indicate a potential interest…This article was originally published on Mongabay
Patent filings help scientists predict patterns in wildlife trade
