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.

Oh, patents! The Body Shop® (1)

Copyright Françoise Herrmann

Do you shop for cruelty-free cosmetics? Are you 4ever against animal testing? Do you shop fair trade in a tradition of ethical consumerism? Do you also support human rights, advocate against human sex trafficking, and domestic violence? Do you militate against female beauty stereotypes? Are you also an AIDS-HIV activist, striving to educate youth and helping those living with AIDS and HIV?

In any one of those cases, or all of them combined, you may be shopping The Body Shop®.

The Body Shop® is the first cosmetics company to have successfully crafted its business plan based on cruelty-free natural products and an activist platform for ethical trade practices, including ethical sourcing of raw materials and local community production. Since its inception in the United Kingdom, in 1976 --the year of the worse heatwave in Europe-- the small cosmetics shop, founded by Dame Anita Roddick, has multiplied into more than 1000 Body Shops® worldwide. The small shop that first re-used its bottles and containers, is now a public company that also trades on the stock market, under the stock ticker symbol BOSB. It is the second most trusted brand in the UK. 

True to its original activism, the company has continued to launch one successful social justice campaign after another, relentlessly expanding its reach to all of the allied causes mentioned above. Most importantly, The Body Shop® keeps on selling a few classics, and an ever-changing line of fabulous natural products, ethically sourced and produced, in faraway places across the globe.  

An early invention for which The Body Shop® filed a British patent application is recited GB2293545A, titled A multiple use cosmetics device. The device disclosed in this patent is a container with two applicators on each end, designed to dispense one product with two or more applications, or two separate products, all in a single container. The preferred embodiment for this device comprises an eyeliner brush and a mascara brush, each screwed on with a cap, on each end of the dispensing body. However, the scope of this invention extends to all sorts of cosmetic products that might be conceivably applied in a 2-step process, not only for eyelashes but for lips, hair, nails, face or other parts of the body. The scope of the invention also covers a device containing one product, or two separate products housed in separate compartments of the container.

The abstract for this invention is included below, together with the three patent drawings, Figures 1, 2A and 2B.

 A multiple use cosmetics device comprises a cylindrical container (1) for a cosmetic or toiletry product or products. and at least two applicators for dispensing and applying the product or products, wherein one applicator comprises a mascara brush (26) and the other an eyeliner applicator (18). The applicators (18, 26) are secured to respective caps (15, 22) which serve to close the ends of the container (1), the caps being cylindrical and having the same diameter as the container. [Abstract GB2293545A]

Figure 1 depicts the double-barrelled container 1, with cylindrical openings (2 and 3) at each end, and necks (4 and 5).  The necks (4 and 5) have tight-fitting inner sleeves (8 and 9) and an outer threaded cover that is part of the main cylindrical body (1). The inner sleeves (8 and 9) have frusto-conical sections (11 and 12) that taper towards the inside of the container, culminating in the openings (13 and 14) for access to the cosmetic products within the container.   

Figures 2A & B depict the respective applicators that are designed to screw onto each end of Figure 1 container (1). Figure 2A depicts an eyeliner applicator with a screw cap (15). The screw cap (15) has an insert (17) with an internal thread (16) designed to cooperate with the Figure 1 container neck (4). The insert (17) has a shaft (19), attached to the eyeliner applicator (18) equipped with a frusto-conical section, at the end (20) of which the eyeliner brush (21) is secured.  Figure 2B, analogous with Figure 2A, depicts the mascara brush applicator, comprising a screw cap (22) with an insert (23) and internal thread (24), designed to cooperate with the Figure 1 container neck (5). The insert (23) has a shaft (25) ,at the end of which is attached the mascara brush (26). 

Reference

The Body Shop®
https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-us/