The Use of Agrobiodiversity for Plant Improvement and Property-Paradigm Breakdowns: Caught Between Patients, Plant Variety Rights and Partially Open Innovation Systems Within the Intellectual Property Paradigm

Abstract

"Our main hypothesis is that, the opposition between the market based and strong intellectual property paradigm in plant improvement, and the public-domain oriented fully-open angle the main alternative paradigm is too restrictive. We argue that the analysis of the context of application of intellectual property rights can rpovide better guidance for the future development of appropriate institutional alternatives to face the problems of in situ agrobiodiversity conservation and for a more equitable distribution of controlled nybridisation technologies and molecular biology research tools in plant improvement. We also argue that these institutional alternatives can be found within the flexibilities of either the TRIPS Agreement (allowing for effective sui generis protection of plant varieties, and loosely setting the contours of compulsory licensing opportunities), or those found within the intellectual property tools themselves in the form of liability rules, such as farmers', breeders' and research exceptions."