Public Sector Collaboration for Agricultural IP Management

摘要

The impact of public-sector research is evident in many technology sectors, and this is particularly true in agriculture. Dating back to the establishment of the Land Grant College system in 1862, universities and other public-sector institutions have been the leaders in developing improved crop varieties that were transferred to farms and to the agricultural industry through cooperative extension services in the United States or equivalent organizations internationally. However, this model is changing rapidly because of increased intellectual property (IP) protection of agricultural inventions, as well as the development of a research-intensive private sector that is making notable contributions to enhancing the productivity of U.S. agriculture. The private sector logically focuses on crops such as corn and soybeans where markets are large, which leaves the development of small specialty crops for the United States and subsistence crops important to the developing world mostly in the hands of the public sector.