The ‘Facilitator': Proposing a New Mechanism to Strengthen the Equitable and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity

The focus of the Convention on Biological Diversity on conservation, the sustainable use of the greatest possible diversity of biota, and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived therefrom, has broadened the opportunities and responsibilities of a range of entities that are involved with conservation. Countries seeking to market their genetic resources, as well as firms seeking access to these materials, are uncertain as to how to proceed under the new expectations brought about by the Convention, and the excitement stemming from prospecting revenues is having an unfortunate side-effect in emphasizing the perceived newness of this opportunity. The continued emphasis on newness discourages participation until a less risky standard practice emerge

The Intellectual and Technical Property Components of pro-Vitamin A Rice (GoldenRiceTM): A Preliminary Freedom-To-Operate Review

Rice is a staple food for millions of people, predominantly in Asia, but lacks essential nutritional components such as Vitamin A. This is very important for over 180 million children and women of child bearing age who suffer from Vitamin A deficiency in Asia alone. For this reason, an improvement was made under an effort led by Profs. Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer by inserting several genes into rice to produce an improved product called GoldenRice. Because GoldenRice has the potential to be easily integrated into the farming systems of the world\u27s poorer regions, the advent of GoldenRice promises to go a long way towards solving Asia\u27s Vitamin A deficiency problem in an effective, inexpensive, and sustainable way. As a result of the increasing complexity of the intellectual property (IP) framework under which the international agricultural development community operates, the Rockefeller Foundation funded an ISAAA project to conduct a selective Freedom-To-Operate (FTO) analysis of GoldenRice with the objectives of reviewing the IP and Technical Property (TP; or tangible property) components associated with GoldenRice; providing institutions interested in distributing GoldenRice with the information needed to develop strategic options for handling the proprietary science embedded in the product; and developing possible alternative strategies on how the IP/TP constraints could be managed effectively. Any FTO opinion is a risk management opinion and its results vary on a country-by-country basis. It is a dynamic opinion; never a definitive answer. Hence the present document serves as an analytical framework that can serve as the basis of a legal FTO review

Agricultural Biotechnology's Complementary Intellectual Assets

We formulate and test a hypothesis to explain the dramatic restructuring experienced recently by the plant breeding and seed industry. The reorganization can be explained in part by the desire to exploit complementarities between intellectual assets needed to create genetically modified organisms. This hypothesis is tested using data on agricultural biotechnology patents, notices for field tests of genetically modified organisms, and firm characteristics. The presence of complementarities is identified with a positive covariance in the unexplained variation of asset holdings. Results indicate that coordination of complementary assets have increased under the consolidation of the industry

A scientist’s perspective: The international arena

We need a good idea to bring about the change needed to make biotechnology flourish and deliver its promise to the world’s citizens at large. Biotechnology is at the heart of the long-term sustainability of our environment, is at the heart of our survival in the long term, and it represents an opportunity today to forge new partnerships for tomorrow