Genetics, plant breeding and patents: conceptual contradictions and practical problems in protecting biological innovations

摘要

The process of innovation in a system of private competitive production presents certain contradictions that need to be resolved. On the one side, private entrepreneurs will not incur the costs of innovations if their competitors can immediately reapthe benefits of those inventions, In the absence of the possibility of obtaining some "innovation rent", the process of ongoing invention is likely to be severely restricted. On the other side, measures taken by the State to encourage and protect innovation investments can lead to undesirable consequences, such as the excessive monopolization of production and the possible monopolization of further steps of innovation, both of which reduce the pressure and opportunity for further invention, The emergingbiotechnology industry is a timely and eloquent example of this process. The contradictions between the requirement for exclusivity and the disadvantages of monopoly control and international capital flows that are a consequence of the granting of patent rights become particularly acute in the case of genetic innovations. It is the purpose of this article to call attention to these contradictions that have arisen in the move to allow the patenting not only of plant varieties, but of the very genes andprocesses that allow these varieties to be created.