As IDA, the NAIMCC will be entrusted for conserving the microorganisms used to develop patents
The National Agriculturally Important Microbial Culture Collection (NAIMCC), a unit of the ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms (ICAR-NBAIM), Maunath Bhanjan, Uttar Pradesh under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research & Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Government of India has acquired the status International Depository Authority (IDA) by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, under Article 7 (1) of the Budapest treaty by its Notification No. 338 w.e.f. 28th July, 2020.
Around 82 countries are part of the treaty and there are about 48 IDAs across 26 countries.
The microbial resource centres having the status of IDA mainly accepts and maintains the microorganisms for patenting of work related to live organisms having the medical, agricultural and other uses. In view of this, an agreement known as Budapest Treaty was passed in 1977 for depositing the microorganisms in culture collection centres for the purposes of patent procedure.
The NAIMCC will be the third IDA of the country after Microbial Type Culture Collection (MTCC), Chandigarh and National Centre for Microbial Resources (NCMR), Pune. As IDA, the NAIMCC will be entrusted for conserving the microorganisms used to develop patents and also conserving the newly described microbial taxa as a requirement for valid taxonomic publication. The NAIMCC is a designated microbial repository for the Agriculturally Important Microorganisms (AIMs) under the National Biodiversity Act, 2002 and is a member of the World Federation of Culture Collections (WFCC). Currently, the NAIMCC holds accessions of 6907 AIMs including 2595 bacteria, 3981 fungi and 331 cyanobacteria.
