Contesting Privatization: NGOs and Farmers' Rights in the African Model Law

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Zerbe
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Food And Agriculture Organization ◽  
African Experience ◽  
Model Law

The development of the concept of farmers' rights in the Food and Agriculture Organization, and its adoption by the African Union as a counterbalance to the private property rights of plant breeders, highlights the divisiveness of the question of ownership in biodiversity and biotechnology. This article examines the development of the African Model Law, a regional regime intended to promote indigenous control over local biodiversity. The principal argument is that key nongovernmental organizations were able to draw on African efforts and concerns regarding conceptions of private property rights embodied in international agreements, framing the question of farmers' rights in a way that spoke to the African experience. Farmers' rights thus came to be a focal point for African negotiators at international discussions on intellectual property rights and biodiversity, enabling Africa to take a key role in the articulation of alternatives to the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement.

Review of Article 27.3(b) and the Patenting of Life Forms: Hitting a BRIC Wall in the WTO?

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-318
Author(s):  
Jagjit Plahe ◽  
Nitesh Kukreja ◽  
Sunil Ponnamperuma
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
The World ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Under Article 27.3(b) of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO), all members are required to extend private property rights to life forms. Using official WTO documents, this article analyzes the negotiating positions of WTO members on life patents during a review of Article 27.3(b) which commenced in 1999 and is currently ongoing. Initially, developing countries raised serious ethical concerns regarding life patents, creating a clear North-South divide. However, over time the position of Brazil and India moved away from the ethics of life patents to the prevention of bio-piracy, a position supported by China. Russia too is supportive of life patents. A group of small developing countries have, however, continued to question the morality of life patents despite this “BRIC wall,” changing the dynamics of the negotiations from a North-South divide to one which now includes a South-South divide.

Africa and Intellectual Property Rights for Plant Varieties

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Titilayo Adebola
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
African Country ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Model Law ◽  
Plant Breeders Rights

The entry into force of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) on 1 January 1995 reversed Africa’s relationship with intellectual property rights for Plant Varieties. Except for Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, no other African country had intellectual property rights systems for plant varieties before TRIPS. However, the obligation set out in Article 27.3(b) of TRIPS for all World Trade Organization (WTO) members to protect plant varieties through patents, an effective sui generis system, or a combination of systems, heralded revisions to the intellectual property laws and policies on the continent. Africa’s response to Article 27.3(b) of TRIPS was the Organization for African Unity (now African Union—AU) African Model Law for the Protection of the Rights of Local Communities, Farmers, and Breeders, and for the Regulation of Access to Biological Resources (African Model Law), adopted in 2000. Grounded on the dynamic social, economic, and political realities in Africa, the African Model Law seeks to balance small-scale farmers’, farming communities’, and commercial plant breeders’ interests. The African Model Law rejects patents for plant varieties and the wholesale adoption of the 1991 version of the International Convention on the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). Instead, it presents a TRIPS-compliant model sui generis option that provides for access and benefit-sharing principles from the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), farmers’ rights from the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (IUPGRFA), and plant breeders’ rights from UPOV 1978 and UPOV 1991. Despite the commendable efforts at creatively designing the Model Law and its historical significance as an African-rooted response to the international debates on the overlapping and conflicting international treaties for plant varieties, the Model Law failed to gain traction in Africa. No African country has adopted it. On the contrary, there is increasing pressure through a coalition of Global North countries, international organizations, and multinational firms for African countries to adopt UPOV-1991-styled plant breeders’ rights systems.

scholarly journals Privately public seeds: competing visions of property, personhood, and democracy in Costa Rica's entry into CAFTA and the Union for Plant Variety Protection (UPOV)

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guntra A. Aistara
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Plant Variety Protection ◽  
Plant Variety ◽  
Variety Protection

Costa Rica's entry into the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was hotly contested and the subject of a national referendum. For activists opposing the treaty, questions of 'privatizing seeds' through imposing intellectual property rights were among the main concerns raised by the treaty, as one requirement of CAFTA was signing the international Convention on Plant Variety Protection known as UPOV. The threat to farmers' seeds in Costa Rica and many other parts of the world is more complicated than being a clear-cut issue of privatization. Struggles for control over seeds are a crucial part of the political economy of agriculture that are grounded in debates over the significance of the physical and social properties of seeds as a natural resource. This article explores how debates over intellectual property rights to seeds confound simple distinctions between public domain and private property, and the implications for agricultural genetic diversity. Moreover, through the story of Costa Rica's engagement with CAFTA and UPOV, I contemplate the broader effects of the free trade paradigm on reconfiguring ideas not only of property but also of personhood and democracy. I will argue that through reconfiguring the boundary between the public domain and private property in the realm of seeds, recent intellectual property trends also reinscribe the definition of farmers along pre-defined class lines. Through their actions, groups involved offer competing visions of how a local resource should be defined and internationally connected; these visions can be understood as competing visions of political ecology in practice.Keywords: Costa Rica, CAFTA, UPOV, intellectual property, seeds

Property-Rights Regimes over Biological Resources

10.1068/c13s ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 651-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Cullet
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Biodiversity Management ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Biological Resources ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
International Instruments ◽  
And Control

The increasing economic importance of biological resources and, in particular, knowledge related to these resources, has made the allocation of property rights one of the most contentious issues in the debate concerning biodiversity management at the international level. The author surveys the different property-rights regimes developed to regulate access to and control over biological resources, and the relevant international instruments and institutions. He argues that the overemphasis on private property rights regimes, in particular monopoly intellectual property rights such as patents, has been inimical to the sustainable management of biological resources at local and international levels. He suggests ways to allocate property rights so as to promote forms of biodiversity management that are both socially equitable and environmentally sustainable, and analyses some of the recent developments concerning alternative forms of intellectual-property protection.

scholarly journals Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues related to access and use of genetic resources

2019 ◽  
Vol 79 (01S) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pratibha Brahmi ◽  
Vandana Tyagi
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Genetic Material ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Food And Nutritional Security

Genetic Resources (GR) refer to genetic material of actual or potential value. Use of GR refers to the process of researching their beneficial properties and using them to increase scientific knowledge and understanding, or to develop commercial products. There is continuous search for newer resources to meet the future demands that arise with the emergence of new diseases, abiotic stresses, climate change, and enhanced demand for food and nutritional security. GR are exchanged and searched continuously for specific traits to improve yields and nutritional value in crops and animal genetic resources. Every nation is concerned with acquisition of diverse and superior germplasm for conservation and utilization. The rapid advancements in the fields of molecular biology, biotechnology and bioinformatics, led to the emergence of new legal, political and technological regimes regulating access to GR. Three international negotiations impacted the access to GR, these are the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) as part of the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). The regulation regarding access to GR, increasing application of IPRs and the vast potential of biological wealth yet to be tapped through bio-prospecting and genetic engineering, has placed greater demands on nations to adjust to the changing scenario of GR management. Currently access to GR is under the provisions of CBD and access to GR is based on mutually agreed terms (MAT), subject to prior informed consent (PIC). In response to CBD, India enacted the Biological Diversity Act (BDA), 2002 and established the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) in 2003. Access to PGR from India is therefore regulated by BDA, 2002. The Nagoya Protocol which entered into force from October 2014 defines the international regime within the framework of CBD to promote and safeguard the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources. The paper discusses these agreements in detail with reference to access and use of GR.

scholarly journals Classical Liberalism and Self-Reference Approach In Dealing With Harmonisation ASEAN IPR Regulations

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Rizki Rahmadini Nurika ◽  
Septian Nur Yekti
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Classical Liberalism ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Member States ◽  
Asean Member ◽  
Self Reference

ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) regulates the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in its relation with their economic activities. It was stipulated in the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Intellectual Property Cooperation in 1995. As the ASEAN member states are also the member of World Trade Organization (WTO), the principles of AEC have to be in harmony with the WTO principles. This paper analyzes the compliance of ASEAN IPR laws with the principles of Trade Related to Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) of WTO. Second, this paper analyzes the enforcement of those regulations in the member states, finding out whether there is implementation in the region that is different with the international principles or not. It is a part of qualitative research that used secondary data to complete the explanative analysis. Classical liberalism and self-reference criterion becomes theoretical framework of analysis. Classical liberalism promotes laissez-faire economics and private property in the means of production. Meanwhile, self-reference criterion refers to an unconscious reference to one’s own culture, values, knowledge, and experience as a basis for decisions. The result reveals that the ASEAN IPR regulations have different specific and special nature with the TRIPs, affected by the characteristics of the nations.

scholarly journals Digital Education as a Strategy for the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-155
Author(s):  
Cristina Lazariuc ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Cyber Attacks ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
Digital Education ◽  
Mandatory Requirement ◽  
High Degree

The spiritual, scientific and cultural potential of society have always been the driving force of sustainable development, which determines the economic competitiveness of any state. Today we are witnessing a race of "digital armament", in which human rights are becoming less and less valuable, including intellectual property rights, which are systematically subjected to cyber-attacks by "data thieves". In this race, both IT giants and users with a high degree of digital literacy are driven by the maxim "purpose excuses the means", namely they admit that they may violate the limits of privacy, the limits of the principle of confidentiality, the limits of data integrity, the safety of persons, the limits of private property, including intellectual property, and all these in the name of profit. Under these conditions, the development of an efficient ecosystem for guaranteeing intellectual property rights, adapted to meet the challenges of the digital economy, requires both a strengthened regulatory environment and better competences. In this context, this article aims to address digital education, both as a mandatory requirement and objective to be achieved in the process of human adaptation to the challenges of the digital revolution, and as a strategy, whose concrete steps would ensure better protection of intellectual property rights, through the digital competences it forms.

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