IPR feeds the colonial origins of biopiracy that continue to create drastic inequities for indigenous people and denies them ownership of their work.

Not surprisingly, biopiracy origins start in a similar place as the destruction of Indigenous food systems - with the arrival of settlers to uncolonized lands. One of the first examples of bioprospecting14 to be written about was in the 1570s when the Spanish physician Francisco Hernandez led the first scientific colonial expedition to Mexico and Central America to collect plants that might cure illnesses abroad.15 During his three year trip, he relied on traditional Indigenous knowledge from healers, leaders, and botanists about herbal remedies and then exported the plants back to Spain.16 Following this, settlers around the globe were quick to find other goods - coffee, cotton, and spices to name a few - that local inhabitants used for traditional purposes and export them for commercial purposes.17 In fact, the looting of India's subcontinent of their spices, which sold for high prices back in England, is arguably the reason that to this day the East India Company (founded in 1600) is still known as one of the largest corporations of its kind in history.18 The building blocks of modern day biopiracy have been in the works for hundreds of years, and the problem has only grown with the arrival of complex economic and justice systems that have protected the colonization of nature and left the discoverers with no method of redress. Indigenous groups are systematically left out of intellectual property frameworks due to lack of access to legal information and have also "had no practical opportunity to participate in the development of national or international intellectual property systems" until very recently.19 Now with robust patent, licensing, copyright, and trademark protections in the US and other Western nations, Indigenous populations are faced with the growing problem of watching their traditional medicines become protected intellectual property in lucrative trade industries - specifically pharmaceuticals, though the market has grown to beauty products, biotech, and agriculture. In 2021, the herbal supplement market reached 151.9 billion USD,20 and the pharmaceuticals industry was estimated to be worth 1.42 trillion USD.21According to the US National Institute of Health, consulting with Indigenous populations doubles the success rate of finding plants that are commercially viable for these markets. 22 On the whole, though, Indigenous communities have not seen any of this profit that they contributed to making.23 As an example, in the years of 1994-1998, researchers from the University of Wisconsin obtained a patent on brazzein, a sweet berry protein native to Gabon, claiming they had discovered it.24 This berry had been in use by the native populations of Gabon for centuries, but none of the Indigenous groups, or the country, saw the benefits of the patent.25 In recent years, the incredibly strong lobbying efforts of biotech and pharmaceutical companies have incentivized the taking of traditional knowledge by making it a lucrative business. 26 The monopolies that these opportunity to participate in the development of national or international intellectual property systems" until very recently.19 Now with robust patent, licensing, copyright, and trademark protections in the US and other Western nations, Indigenous populations are faced with the growing problem of watching their traditional medicines become protected intellectual property in lucrative trade industries - specifically pharmaceuticals, though the market has grown to beauty products, biotech, and agriculture. In 2021, the herbal supplement market reached 151.9 billion USD,20 and the pharmaceuticals industry was estimated to be worth 1.42 trillion USD.21According to the US National Institute of Health, consulting with Indigenous populations doubles the success rate of finding plants that are commercially viable for these markets. 22 On the whole, though, Indigenous communities have not seen any of this profit that they contributed to making.23 As an example, in the years of 1994-1998, researchers from the University of Wisconsin obtained a patent on brazzein, a sweet berry protein native to Gabon, claiming they had discovered it.24 This berry had been in use by the native populations of Gabon for centuries, but none of the Indigenous groups, or the country, saw the benefits of the patent.25 In recent years, the incredibly strong lobbying efforts of biotech and pharmaceutical companies have incentivized the taking of traditional knowledge by making it a lucrative business. 26 The monopolies that these corporations and certain conglomerates create on intellectual property rights can make it difficult for Indigenous communities to enter the market with their own products and occasionally bars them from using the resources at all without running aground of patent protections or licensing agreements.