Propriété intellectuelle et sélection dans les pays du Sud

Do developing countries need plant variety protection rights? As a result of the Uruguay Round adopted in Marrakech in 1994, all WTO member countries should have implemented property rights systems before the year 2000. In this frame, countries ore required to provide "for the protection of plant varieties by patents or by an effective sui generis system or by any combination thereof". The interest of implementing IPR on plant varieties in developing countries is discussed, considering two types of seedlings or seeds: those with a very high added value (vegetable, ornamental, industrial... crops) and those for stopple food crops with a very low added value. If IPR are needed at short notice in the first case, in the second case the priority is to set up a bottom-up seed production organization aiming to promote individual initiatives at the former's level with an odapted seed quality control system implemented by governments. (Résumé d'auteur

La protection de la propriété intellectuelle sur le vivant : historique et débats actuels autour des variétés végétales

The concept of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is a very old one, dating at least as for back as the Ancient Greek times. Many examples con be identified as of the XVth century, and most of the European countries hod developed IPR systems by the end of the XVIIIth century. These delt only with non-living material or processes, and so did the Convention de Paris that set up the international patent system in 1883. The struggle of plant breeders to obtain variety protection rights started around 1850, The first plant variety protection system was established in the US in 1930, but was limited to vegetatively propagated crops, At the international level, a sui generis system for protecting plant varieties was adopted in Paris in 1961, through the UPOV Convention. Then patents were delivered for other living organisms as bacteria in 1972, mice (1987), firstly in the States and thereafter in other countries. Patenting genes, human or non human, is a very fundamental debate with crucial ethical and sociological issues. Because a gene is of natural origin, not created by human cleverness, it should not be patentable as such, and any patented utility or industrial application of a gene should not imply any dependence on further new utilities or industrial applications of the some gene. This is the very ethically-correct position of the French Academy of Sciences, stated in June 2000. But the same reasoning should be applied to all other natural products such cis proteins, molecules of pharmaceutical or industrial interest... and the genetic resources which contain these genes, proteins and molecules! This position is in full accordance with the UPOV system, but in complete opposition with the provisions of the Rio Conference on Biological Diversity, the International Undertaking on Genetic Resources of the FAO which is still under discussion, the Farmers' Rights which are defended by NGOs in developing countries, etc. The contradictions between, on the one hand, an intellectual property rights system for genes, natural molecules, genetic resources and traditional knowledge based on the ethical position of the French Academy of Sciences, and on the other hand, the property rights which are being set up in the frame of the Rio Conference and the International Undertaking of FAO, and their consequences, are discussed. (Résumé d'auteur

La gouvernance informationnelle, outil et enjeu stratégiques des recompositions territoriales : vers l'émergence de nouveaux référentiels géographiques ?

International audienceBy facing unsettled and heterogeneous perimeters but at the same time by being obliged to lead concrete actions, new territories (i.e. large communities of municipalities) meet new and original needs in terms of “self-knowledge and representation”. At the same time, national institutions which up to this time produced standard spatial and statistical data for supra-local levels are being challenged by various private stakeholders (from Google to thematic communities). This communication aims to question the paradigm change resulting from these mutations. It will specifically focus on the reference data set conceived as a balance and meeting point for territorial knowledge. As hybrid object, territorial reference data indeed intersect two both scientific and political issues: matching knowledge and action, legitimacy to “tell the territory”.Face à des périmètres mouvants et hétérogènes mais enjoints de penser et de conduire des actions concrètes, les nouveaux territoires (intercommunalités, SCoT...) sont confrontés à des besoins de connaissance et de représentation de soi dans des termes assez largement inédits. Parallèlement, les institutions qui avaient jusqu’alors conçu et fourni les données de référence aux échelles supra-locales sont désormais concurrencées ou contournées par des acteurs aux statuts, natures et motivations très diverses (de Google aux communautés locales ou thématiques). La communication se propose d’interroger le changement de paradigme induit par ces évolutions en s’attachant au point de rencontre et d’équilibre entre représentations du territoire que constituent les référentiels (cartographiques, statistiques...). Objet hybride, les référentiels croisent deux questionnements autant scientifique que politique : celui de l’adéquation entre connaissance et action, celui de la légitimité à dire le territoire

Optoelectronic analogue signal transfer for LHC detectors, 1991

We propose to study and develop opto-electronic analogue front-ends based on electro-optic intensity modulators. These devices translate the detector electrical analogue signals into optical signals which are then transferred via optical fibres to photodetector receivers at the remote readout. In comparison with conventional solutions based on copper cables, this technique offers the advantages of high speed, very low power dissipation and transmission losses, compactness and immunity to electromagnetic interference. The linearity and dynamic range that can be obtained are more than adequate for central tracking detectors, and the proposed devices have considerable radiation- hardness capabilities. The large bandwidth and short transit times offer possibilities for improved triggering schemes. The proposed R&D programme is aimed at producing multi-channel "demonstrator" units for evaluation both in laboratory and beam tests. This will allow the choice of the most effective technology. A detailed study will also be carried out on packaging and interconnection to large arrays of fibres, as well as on the optimization of the processes for the production of large quantities