13 - Patents for Life: Toward an Ethical Use of Patents on Plant Innovations

Summary

Providing sufficient, healthy food to a rapidly growing world population requires maximising agricultural innovation and its use. Intellectual Property (IP) can play an important enabling role, but is also seen by some as an obstacle. This chapter discusses the root causes of the negative perception of IP and explores solutions that can foster a constructive and ethical use of IP. Patents and plant breeders’ rights provide incentives for different plant-related innovations, which can in principle be complementary, fostering a broad range of innovations. Current tension between the two systems seems to result less from what can be protected, and more from a non-harmonized use of rights resulting from the two systems. The chapter argues that solutions exist, especially if they rely on a combination of industry-based provisions, encouraged and supported by legislative frameworks. These can achieve a cultural shift from “exclusivity and value capture” to “access and benefit sharing” and encourage an ethical use of patents on seeds: one that does not limit access to genetic resources and solutions for food security. The international licensing platform for vegetables, based on the principle of “free access but not access for free”, is an example of such a new use of IP.