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Patenting Lives Conference
Development and Innovation Panel
Patenting of Life Forms, Intellectual Property Rights and Global Economic Competitiveness in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Nigeria
Asolo Adewole Adeyeye (Co-authors Bello Aderemi Ademola and Odebiyi Fausat Olusola)
As developments in the world of intellectual property rights give adequate considerations to the issue of patenting life forms against the backdrops of ethico-cultural, innovation, human rights and public interest challenges, there is the overriding importance of patenting life forms as intellectual property rights for sustainable national economic development in the emerging global economic competitive order. This paper examines the patenting of life forms as intellectual property rights vis-à-vis the potentials as veritable economic portals for global competitiveness in the emerging global market and economic configuration. The paper observes that with eventual enlargements of intellectual property rights to cover patenting of life forms, the developing countries, particularly Nigeria, are sure to reap bountifully from such rights to boost global economic competitiveness in the present international economic conflagration.
Farmers' Perspectives on IPR: A Developing Country Point of View
Purvi Mehta-Bhatt (and Arjun Mehta)
There is a number of concerns regarding the potential impact of globalisation and regimes like IPR. While these regimes are based on the principle of 'equal opportunity,' there are existing 'inequalities' that need to be addressed, including the inequality in present market access, infrastructure, economical and social status among farmers of developing and industrialized nations. While most of these regimes are made with a 'one size fits all' principle, it is important to study the unique priorities, concerns and perception of developing country farmers.
This paper concerns a study undertaken by the non-governmental organisation, The Science Ashram, a not for profit organization, working with more than 63 000 farmers in India . The Science Ashram conducted the study to evaluate the farmers' perspectives of IPR and their level of understanding of the regime, and also talked to farmers about how these regimes will change their way of farming. Although the study was undertaken only with Indian farmers, it is of global importance in that it is of particular relevance to a broader understanding of the developing country point of view. In that a quarter of the world's farmers reside in India , to take into account the Indian farmer's perspective is of global relevance. This paper elaborates upon this unique study and gives some suggestions on how these regimes can be made more relevant and meaningful for farmers, especially in view of the developing country farmers' perspective.
Biotechnology in Brazil: Is Biodiversity to Brazil Really Indispensable?
Edson Beas Rodrigues Jr
As far as biological diversity and associated traditional knowledge is concerned, Brazil is the wealthiest country in the world, therefore it is expected that its biotech/TK-related legal framework may play an important role in the international arena, being a model to other countries that bear the same Brazilian peculiarities and allegedly pursue that same goals: wealth in matters of biodiversity and local traditional knowledge, material poverty, need to foster genuine local research in the field of biotechnology, problems related to the plunder of local biodiversity and knowledge. Nevertheless, despite of the importance of the Brazilian natural heritage not only to its local development and the strategic importance of biodiversity for biotechnology as well as the fact that Brazil hosted in 1992 the United Nations Earth Summit, up till now, the Brazilian governmental bodies and civil society have not agreed upon an efficient regulation for accessing and rewarding the local biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge.
Until early 2002, Brazil adopted the environmental paradigm of conservation of the biological diversity just the way it is, meaning that the local framework and administrative praxis of the governmental bodies in charge of regulating access, use and research involving biodiversity set up a very sophisticated and bureaucratic regime that prevents the legal access to and use of the biological diversity. This stance led to biopiracy and unsustainable use of the biological resources and to the replacement of the rainforest by soya fields, provided that these seem, at first sight, more profitable than conserving a "useless beauty". Recently, the Brazilian parliament passed two new bills that mean, some might say, the shift of paradigm from conservation to the use of the biodiversity: the innovation law and the new biosafety legislation. However, a critical analysis of the current Brazilian framework regulating biodiversity and biotechnology leads us to bewildering conclusions about the genuine goals pursued by the Brazilian government.
This paper focuses on the Brazilian pieces of legislation that affect the development of a local biotechnology industry, the lack of political coherence between the Brazilian diplomatic body and the regulation of biotechnology and biodiversity in Brazil, and the potential outcomes accruing from this contradiction.
