Oh, patents! The Body Shop® (2)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The Boby Shop® patent GB2321644A titled Cosmetic composition comprising cupuaçu extract, recites cosmetic formulations for hair shampoo and conditioner, comprising a cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum) extract. The extract is in the form of pulp, oil or juice.

The cupuaçu tree is a relative of the cocoa tree. It grows in the tropical forests of the Amazon Basin, in northern Brazil, Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, and Surinam.

While developing the cosmetic formulations, the inventors found the superior conditioning properties of a cupuaçu extract. Thus, the invention responds to consumer preferences for natural vs. synthetic cosmetic conditioners for hair, skin and nails. Additionally, the formulas developed were found cost-effective compared to the use of synthetic agents. While the embodiments of the invention recited cover hair shampoo and conditioner, the scope of the invention extends to other cosmetic products such as skin moisturizers, shower gels, hair mousse, lipstick and mascara for skin, nails, lips, eyelashes, and other parts of the body.  

This patent appears otherwise a bit controversial in its claim that in contrast to the well-documented use of cupuaçu as foodstuff,  “there is no evidence that native peoples have used cupuaçu fruit for cosmetic purposes.” This statement is controversial in that it ignores sources of potential evidence for cosmetic uses of cupuaçu in the oral transmission of knowledge. Oral transmission occurring vertically from one generation to the next, or horizontally from one group to another, in which native uses of cupuaçu for cosmetic purposes might have evolved as ancestral knowledge, or established itself as commonly shared knowledge. Indeed, such sources of shared knowledge transmitted from one generation to another, or found in the cultural habitus, if they were to count, or compare to written documentation in a print tradition of knowledge, could invalidate the patentability of the invention.

However controversial the abovementioned statement in GB2321644A might appear, it fortunately arises within the context of The Body Shop®, a company that established itself as a true trailblazer in the domain of ethical trading and consumerism for cosmetic products. If The Body Shop® cosmetic formulations for using cupuaçu are patented in the West (according to print-based patenting rules and regulations), the source materials are also purchased at fair prices from the indigenous communities in which they are found, rather than harvested by The Body Shop® and sold back to the indigenous communities are unaffordable prices. 

In other words, using the conceptual framework of one of the most vibrant and prolific third world voices of dissent in the patenting system, one might hope that if the native cupuaçu cosmetics know how has somehow been unacknowledged in the West, at least it was not completely plundered from the communities that have nurtured its production and processing for so many eons (e.g.; Shiva, 1999). Indeed,  The Body Shop® partners with local cooperatives to produce and trade so that profits also benefit the source communities. The company strives to promote sustainable win-win partnerships for development as a hallmark of its brand.  In any event, this is the distinctive business model what has propelled The Body Shop® to the top of the charts beyond the UK, in the United States, where it is also upheld as a blueprint for ethical business practices.  

Images of the cupuaçu pods, pulp and tree are included above, as well as of The Body Shop®, Spa of the World™, Brazilian Cupuaçu exfoliating scrub-in-oil. This scrub-in-oil, formulated with cupuaçu, is "Enriched with community trade Soya Oil from Gebana, Brazil and Cupuaçu Seed Butter from the cooperative of Aprafamta in Northern Brazil".

Reference
The Body Shop®
https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-us/
Shiva, V. (1999) Biopiracy: The plunder of nature and knowledge.  Cambridge, MA: South End Press.