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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.

Intellectual property and biotechnology: biological inventions Matthew Rimmer 1 Resenha Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008 - 377 páginas 'Dr Rimmer's book is a marvellous introduction to a crucial topic of our time. He writes engagingly, provocatively and always with good humour. A highly technical and complex area of law has been reduced to clear descriptions and searching analysis. Truly, this is an important book on an essential topic that will help define the ethics of a future that includes nothing less than the future of our species.' - From the foreword by the Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG, the High Court of Australia This book documents and evaluates the dramatic expansion of intellectual property law to accommodate various forms of biotechnology from micro-organisms, plants, and animals to human genes and stem cells. It makes a unique theoretical contribution to the controversial public debate over the commercialisation of biological inventions. The author also considers the contradictions between the Supreme Court of Canada rulings in respect of the Harvard Oncomouse, and genetically modified canola. He explores law, policy, and practice in both Australia and New Zealand in respect to gene patents and non-coding DNA. This study charts the rebellion against the European Union Biotechnology Directive - particularly in respect of Myriad Genetics' BRCA1 and BRCA2 patents, and stem cell patent applications. The book also considers whether patent law will accommodate frontier technologies - such as bioinformatics, haplotype mapping, proteomics, pharmacogenomics, and nanotechnology. Intellectual Property and Biotechnology will be of prime interest to lawyers and patent attorneys, scientists and researchers, business managers and technology transfer specialists.

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.

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

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

Starting around 1900, technology became a lively subject for debate among intellectuals, writers, and other opinion leaders. The expansion of the machine into ever more areas of social and economic life had led to a need to interpret its meanings in a more comprehensive way than in the past. World War I and its aftermath shifted the terms of this ongoing debate by underlining both the potential dangers of technology and its centrality to modern life. This book examines the broad range of social and intellectual responses to technology in the first four decades of this century, and suggests that these responses set the terms that continue to govern contemporary debates. Focusing on the broader contexts within which intellectual positions are formed, the book highlights the ways in which attitudes toward technology were shaped in a wide variety of national and organizational settings. A common theme is that, in debating technology, people drew on their distinctive national symbols and cultural traditions. By emphasizing the interplay between debates on technology and the making of modernity, the book challenges standard historical accounts of the early twentieth century. Contributors: Ketil G. Andersen, Aant Elzinga, Tor Halvorsen, Mikael Hard, Kjetil Jakobsen, Andrew Jamison, Catharina Landstrom, Conny Mithander, Sissel Myklebust, Dick van Lente, Peter Wagner.

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 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

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.

This introduction suggests an inherited weakness of 'orthodox' materialist conceptions of the development of the productive forces in capitalist agriculture, and the intellectual deficit of an uncritical and ahistorical stance that embraces such development as forever 'progressive'. The best recent work in political ecology presents agrarian political economy with a challenge to address that intellectual deficit by interrogating and problematizing its inherited conceptions of the productive forces, both theoretically and historically. This is illustrated with reference to notions of the 'biophysical contradictions of industrial capitalist agriculture', a global agricultural or food 'crisis', and suggested alternatives, drawing on the analyses and arguments of the six papers that follow.

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.

Biodiversity and the law: intellectual property, biotechnology and traditional knowledge Charles R. McManis 0 Resenhas Earthscan, 2007 - 484 páginas How do we promote global economic development while simultaneously preserving local biological and cultural diversity? This authoritative volume, written by leading biological and social scientists and legal experts from around the world, addresses this question in all of its complexity. The first part of the book examines biodiversity and examines what are we losing, why we are losing it and what is to be done. The second part addresses biotechnology and looks at whether it is part of the solution or part of the problem'or perhaps both. The third section examines traditional knowledge, explains what it is and how, if at all, should it be protected. The fourth and final part looks at ethnobotany and bioprospecting and offers practical lessons from the vast and diverse experiences of the contributors. This volume is an indispensable reference for all legal practitioners, regulators and policy makers, scientists and conservationists and professionals in pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.

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

Food fears: from industrial to sustainable food systems Alison Blay-Palmer 0 Resenhas Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008 - 185 páginas The industrial food system of the West is increasingly perceived as problematic. The physical, social and intellectual distance between consumers and their food stems from a food system that privileges quantity and efficiency over quality, with an underlying assumption that food is a commodity, rather than a source of nourishment and pleasure.In the wake of various food and health scares, there is a growing demand from consumers to change the food they eat, which in turn acts as a catalyst for the industry to adapt and for alternative systems to evolve. Drawing on a wealth of empirical research into mainstream and alternative North American food systems, this book argues that sustainable, grass roots, local food systems offer a template for meaningful individual activism as a way to bring about change from the bottom up, while at the same time creating pressure for policy changes at all levels of government. This movement signals a shift away from market economy principles and reflects a desire to embody social and ecological values as the foundation for future growth.

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.

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.

On the sustainability of the capitalist order: Schumpeter's capitalism, socialism and democracyrevisited Filip Caeldries New York University, USA Available online 23 March 2002. Abstract The present study provides a contemporary reading of Schumpeter's instability-of-capitalism thesis as formulated in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942). The study of the sustainability of the Western position in capitalism focuses on: (1) the dissociation between private and social objectives in welfare capitalism, (2) the deconstruction of the moral-ethical principles on which the capitalist order was founded, (3) the threat of egalitarianism, (4) the role of the intellectual class, and (5) the cultural contradictions of capitalism. Contrary to claims that the disolution of the state socialist order signals a victory for capitalism it is observed that capitalism remains exposed to powerful challenges. "[B]etween now and the year 2000, the order of money will become universal. From Santiago to Beijing, from Johannesburg to Moscow, all economic systems will worship at the altar of the market" "But capitalism's very success creates the conditions for failure" (Attali, 1991, Millenium, pp. 120, 118)

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