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Intellectual Property Rights And Concentration In Agricultural Biotechnology William Lesser Cornell University AgBioForum Fall98 v.1, n.2 The relationships between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and structural change are examined in this paper. Intellectual property rights are a complex, multifaceted area and one in which corporate strategies are poorly understood. Nevertheless, it is argued here that IPRs can affect firm entry, can make vertical integration in downstream industries more or less necessary, and can create financial incentives for downstream mergers and acquisitions. Hence, IPRs can have significant structural impacts. Key words: intellectual property rights; agrobiotechnology; industry structure; research and development (R&D) The later 1990s have been a tumultuous time for merger and acquisition activity among firms involved in agricultural biotechnology. By the end of the third quarter of 1998, Monsanto alone had been involved in 18 acquisitions and had itself agreed and then reneged on a merger with American Home Products. In addition, Monsanto completed overseas acquisitions worth a total of $7.3 billion over two years. Novartis was formed by the merging of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy, while DuPont chose to enter the market through joint ventures; a total of 20 joint ventures valued at over $5 billion (Moore, 1998). These mergers have contributed greatly to a restructuring of the seed industry. Most notably, Monsanto controlled up to 40 percent of seed for the 1998 United States (U.S.) soybean crop and, if approved, full acquisition of Delta & Pine Land will give Monsanto ownership of at least 80 percent of the U.S. cotton seed industry (Kilman & Warren, 1998). This is not the only incidence of major acquisition activity, a previous one occurred about 20 years earlier. Butler and Marion (1985) list 27 mergers during the period 1978-80. The 1980 date is pivotal as it marks some strengthening amendments to the United States Plant Variety Prot

EU intellectual property law and policy Catherine Seville 0 Resenhas Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009 - 431 páginas Intellectual property (IP) is a crucial contributor to economic growth and competitiveness within the EU. This book offers a compact and accessible account of EU intellectual property law and policy, covering copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and the enforcement of rights. The author also addresses aspects of the free movement of goods and services, competition law, customs measures and anti-counterfeiting efforts. Setting EU intellectual property law in its wider international context, this work reveals the framework within which the national IP laws of member states operate. The book seeks to highlight the most important policy issues and arguments of relevance to the EU, both within the Union, and in its relations with the rest of the world. With its the detailed references, cross-referencing and suggestions for further readings, EU Intellectual Property Law and Policy is essential reading for postgraduate students and academic lawyers in IP and EU law. Practitioners seeking a broad account of the area will also appreciate this important contribution.

Special Issue: Innovation and Dynamic Efficiency in Agricultural Biotechnology Guest editors: James F. Oehmke, Carl Pray, and Anwar Naseem Preface: Innovation and Dynamic Efficiency in Agricultural Biotechnology J.F. Oehmke, C.E. Pray, & A. Naseem Innovation and Dynamic Efficiency in Plant Biotechnology: An Introduction to the Researchable Issues C.E. Pray, J.F. Oehmke, & A. Naseem Who is Doing What? Intellectual Property Rights in a Changing Political Environment: Perspectives on the Types and Administration of Protection W. Lesser Patterns of Public-Sector and Private-Sector Patenting in Agricultural Biotechnology P.W. Heisey, J.L. King, & K. Day Rubenstein Mergers, Acquisitions, and Stocks of Agricultural Biotechnology Intellectual Property J.L. King & D.E. Schimmelpfennig An Innovation Market Approach to Analyzing Impacts of Mergers and Acquisitions in the Plant Biotechnology Industry M. Brennan, C.E. Pray, A. Naseem, & J.F. Oehmke Does Plant Variety Intellectual Property Protection Improve Farm Productivity? Evidence From Cotton Varieties A. Naseem, J.F. Oehmke, & D.E. Schimmelpfennig What are the Current Effects of Industry Structure? Intellectual Property Rights on Research Tools: Incentives or Barriers to Innovation? Case Studies of Rice Genomics and Plant Transformation Technologies C.E. Pray & A. Naseem Property Rights and Incentives to Invest in Seed Varieties: Governmental Regulations in Argentina J.P. Kesan & A.A. Gallo Monopoly Power, Price Discrimination, and Access to Biotechnology Innovations A.K.A. Acquaye & G. Traxler Whither Biotechnology Research? Can Technology Transfer Help Public-Sector Researchers Do More with Less? The Case of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service K. Day Rubenstein & P.W. Heisey Second-Generation GMOs: Where to from Here? K.Y. Jefferson-Moore & G. Traxler Articles Bt Corn Farmer Compliance with Insect Resistance Management Requirements in Minnesota and Wisconsin J. Goldberger, J. Merrill, & T. Hurley Perceptions

International public goods and transfer of technology under a globalized intellectual property regime Keith Eugene Maskus, Jerome H. Reichman 0 Resenhas Cambridge University Press, 2005 - 922 páginas Distinguished economists, political scientists, and legal experts discuss the implications of the increasingly globalized protection of intellectual property rights for the ability of countries to provide their citizens with such important public goods as basic research, education, public health, and environmental protection. Such items increasingly depend on the exercise of private rights over technical inputs and information goods, which could usher in a brave new world of accelerating technological innovation. However, higher and more harmonized levels of international intellectual property rights could also throw up high roadblocks in the path of follow-on innovation, competition and the attainment of social objectives. It is at best unclear who represents the public interest in negotiating forums dominated by powerful knowledge cartels. This is the first book to assess the public processes and inputs that an emerging transnational system of innovation will need to promote technical progress, economic growth and welfare for all participants.

ntellectual property and patents involving animals is an ever-changing field. The purpose of this book is to review the role that intellectual property plays in the development of modern animal breeding and genetics. It includes discussion of the history of animal patenting, common forms of intellectual property, economic issues related to patent protection and the funding of research, ethical issues, and the consequences of intellectual property in the modern animal genetics market place

During the past twenty-five years, biotechnology has revolutionized agricultural research. The enormous potential, together with a landmark decision by the US Supreme Court to allow the patenting of genetically-engineered organisms has encouraged private sector companies to invest in agricultural biotechnology research programmes. This has contributed to a rapid growth in interest in intellectual property rights as applied to this subject.The first edition of this book was published in 1998. Now fully revised and updated it presents definitive information on intellectual property law in a simplified form (with a minimum of legal jargon). New chapters have been added which cover plant variety protection and farmers rights, and additional case studies.

For most countries, economic development involves a process of "catching up" with leading countries at the time. This is never achieved solely by physical assets and labor alone: also needed are the accumulation of technological capabilities, educational attainment, entrepreneurship, and the development of the necessary institutional infrastructure. One element of this infrastructure is the regime of intellectual property rights (IPR), particularly patents. Patents may promote innovation and catch up, and they may foster formal technology transfer. Yet they may also prove to be barriers for developing countries that intend to acquire technologies through imitation and reverse engineering. The current move to harmonize the IPR system internationally, such as the TRIPS agreement, may thus have unexpected consequences for developing countries. This book explores these issues through an in depth study of eleven countries ranging from early developers (the USA, Nordic Countries and Japan), and Post World War 2 countries (Korea, Taiwan, Israel) to more recent emerging economies (Argentina, Brazil, China, India and Thailand). With contributions from international experts on innovation systems, this book will be an invaluable resource for academics and policymakers in the fields of economic development, innovation studies and intellectual property laws.

Intellectual property rights, strategy and policy Economics of Innovation and New Technology Volume 13, Issue 5, 2004, Pages 399 - 415 Author: Lee Davis DOI: 10.1080/1043859042000188683 Online Sample       Subscribe Abstract This introductory essay to the special edition explores the changing role of intellectual property rights (IPRs), and the implications of these changes for firm strategy and industrial policy. Four recent, interrelated trends are important in this regard: (1) the growing prominence of intangible assets as sources of competitive advantage, (2) the globalization of business activities, (3) advances in digital technologies of replicability and transferability, and (4) changes in the legal framework governing the strength and scope of IPRs. We focus, in particular, on the impact of these trends on the importance and effectiveness of patents. We argue that while patents have become more valuable to firms, to fulfill a variety of strategic goals, they seem to have become less effective in actually motivating R&D. This distorts the 'bargain' implied by the patent system, increasing the social costs of patenting while decreasing the social benefits. To help restore this balance, various reforms may be implemented, including the use of alternative incentive systems.

Intellectual property rights in plant varieties: international legal regimes and policy options for national governments Laurence R. Helfer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 0 Resenhas

There is a veritable gold rush mentality in the life science world as scientists, entrepreneurs and multinationals are staking claims to the a ~code of lifea (TM) embodied in the worlda (TM)s current stock of plants, animals, microbes and human populations. In response, the communities that see themselves as the custodians of both that traditional knowledge and specific genetic resources have demanded greater recognition of their role in creating and conserving this resource, access to any resulting improvements and a share of the benefits arising from their patrimony. This has precipitated a widespread efforta "in local communities, in the marketplace, in many developing and developed countries and at the talks in the Doha Round of the WTOa "to reconcile the interests and concerns of the two opposing groups. This edited volume explores the legal, economic and political context for the debate about intellectual property rights for traditional knowledge and genetic resources and critically analyses the theory and practice of access and benefits sharing efforts around the world. The book also investigates the current flashpointsa "the David and Goliath battle between Monsanto and Percy Schmeiser over farmersa (TM) rights; the dispute over coexistence of GM and organic production; and the ownership and control of human genetic materials stored in human gene banks around the world.

This report examines factors that have proven helpful in achieving the successful transfer of environmentally sound technologies (EST) to developing countries. It provides an overview of the main issues lying behind trade-related aspects of EST transfers. It then briefly examines the main channels for the transfer of such technologies and the factors which are relevant to technology transfer in general, and to EST transfer in particular. It concludes with a summary of conditions for successful EST transfers which seem to be particularly relevant in the context of trade. These include government regulation and marketbased instruments, trade-related policies and practices, intellectual property rights, capacity, and financing. The report is based on the extensive literature dealing with technology transfer in general, and EST transfer specifically, and on empirical work summarised in a range of case studies

The International Breeder's Rights System and Crop Plant Innovation John H. Barton 1 1 Professor of law at Stanford Law School, Stanford, California 94305 Legal arrangements governing a plant breeder's intellectual property rights to his inventions are likely to affect the future of crop research. Such systems, although controversial, are probably currently desirable for the developed world. The new genetic technologies may change this judgment, and certainly require redefinition of the lines between plant patents and regular patents. Several safeguards, present in the United States breeder's rights law, should be applied more broadly. A new safeguard-of ensuring that material be entered into germplasm banks-should be applied everywhere. For the developing world, the desirability of a plant patent system is much less clear; new agreements may be desirable to ensure the free flow and collection of germplasm.

Examines the concepts of wilderness protection & biodiversity conservation & the different priorities & perceptions of indigenous peoples living within many regions that have been established as protected areas. Discussion is included on wilderness & protection; indigenous peoples & their rights; protecting biodiversity, the social impacts of wilderness protection; the politics of parks; society & biodiversity; parks for people: management alternatives; conservation outside protected areas; from national parks to global benefits: conservation of the global commons; & indigenous intellectual property rights.Ó Extensive bibliography. « Menos

Corporate appropriation of genetic resources, development and deployment of transgenic varieties, and the global imposition of intellectual property rights are now widely recognized as moments of accumulation by dispossession. Though robust and globally distributed, opposition to such processes have been largely defensive in orientation, and even accommodationist in demands for the development of market mechanisms for compensating those from whom germplasm is being collected. A more radical stance founded on legal and operational mechanisms drawn from the open-source software movement could not only function to impede processes of dispossession, but might actually facilitate the repossession of 'seed sovereignty'. Implementation of 'biological open-source' arrangements could plausibly undergird the creation of a protected commons populated by farmers and plant breeders whose materials would be freely available and widely exchanged, but would be protected from appropriation by those who would monopolize them.

Worlds of food: place, power, and provenance in the food chain Kevin Morgan, Terry Marsden, Jonathan Murdoch 0 Resenhas Oxford University Press, 2006 - 225 páginas Three leading scholars in the field explain why place and provenance are assuming more importance in the food chain to producers, consumers, and regulators. They examine how these concerns influence debates on the future of food and farming, exploring the implications for three very different regions: California, Tuscany, and Wales

"After almost fifteen years in the laboratory and in the test plots, bioengineered crops arrived to the market in the mid-1990s. Adoption was rapid and widespread. In 1996, less than 4 million acres in six countries were planted with bioengineered plants. By 2001, worldwide adoption had expanded to more than 115 million acres." The foretelling of a scientific revolution has persistently raised expectations on the potential of agrobiotechnology, and first-generation agrobiotechnologies have had to confront such expectations in the field and in the market. The Economics and Environmental Impacts of Agbiotech: A Global Perspective explains how well they have fared. It brings together leading authors from around the world who have analyzed the production, environmental and economic impacts of first generation agrobiotechnologies. By pooling experiences across various countries, time periods, crops, and traits this global panel synthesizes a complete picture of the impacts of first generation agrobiotechnologies. The Economics and Environmental Impacts of Agbiotech: A Global Perspective offers this assessment, accounting for the full range of differences in geography, weather, pests, farm structures and institutions that had not been completed previously, and answers these important questions: *What were the factors driving the widespread adoption of these first generation agrobiotechnologies? *What were their economic and environmental impacts? *How were such impacts distributed among innovators and adopters, developed and developing countries, exporters and importers, domestic and foreign consumers? *How were such impacts and their distribution affected by market structures and government policies?

The market for technology plays a crucial role in firms' technology strategy as a way to undertake search in the available technological space. Drawing on innovation search theory and the literatures on licensing and absorptive capacity (AC) we address the issue of the factors that affect how technologically distant from the existing technological portfolio in-licensing firms are able to move when they in-license externally developed technologies. We posit that a long technological distance reflects the outcome of more exploratory search, while a short distance reflects the outcome of exploitative search. We conjecture two distinct dimensions of AC in terms of the firms' stock of knowledge ("assimilation capacity") and the degree to which firms have searched broadly in the past ("monitoring ability") to affect the distance of exploration from the existing technological portfolio. Furthermore, we compare firms that explore through licensing and firms which do not explore through licensing, but do so through search reflected in own patenting activities. We propose that the effects of assimilation capacity and monitoring ability should be more pronounced for licensees. Combining data on 176 license agreements and related patent information and while using a control sample of non-licensing firms we find-with exceptions-support for these ideas.

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