To Reap and to Sow Market Seeds: Globalisation, Competition and Intellectual Property

On May 12 a joint meeting of the NTI IPNet and FoodNet working groups was held concerning intellectual property issues in agribusiness: "Intellectual property in genetic resources: challenges for the development of agricultural science and production". The discussion took place on the eve of 'Foresight Fleet', aimed at joint elaboration of the strategy of the National Technology Initiative. 

The main speakers of the seminar were Michigan State University Professor James Chen and the Director of the HSE-Skolkovo Institute for Law and Development and Director of the Department for Legal Policy at the Skolkovo Foundation, Alexey Ivanov.

Until the end of the 90s, almost all genetic resources were not recognised as valid objects for patenting within legal systems. Intellectual property regarding the objects of wildlife was permitted solely under the special regimes of protection of breeding considerations. Over the last 20 years, because of a gradual resolution of most legal orders, including the Russian so-called biotech patents, genetic resources are rapidly being worked with in terms of them being property. This trend has had a tremendous impact on changing the principles of agricultural production, as well as research work in this field. Modern breeding of plants and animals is impossible without the use of genetic information, and access to it is being driven by the logic of the intellectual property institutions. The meeting was devoted to discussion of the challenges posed for the development of the agricultural sector and the current regime of intellectual property for genetic resources.