Patents and China's research and development in agricultural biotechnology

摘要

Previous studies have shown that despite the increasing prevalence of patents that impede the use of inventions by other researchers1"4, public-sector scientists often disregard patents and adopt 'working solutions' that allow their research to proceed5'6. This finding is not surprising, given that such scientists' research focuses on basic science in the service of the public good. However, when a public research program has as its mandate both the furtherance of the public good and the commercialization of their technologies, how have scientists responded to the patents? Specifically, do they know and care about the research tools and materials used in their research but patented by others? How have they actually used patented materials in their research activities? Though these issues arise frequently in agricultural research and development (R&D) in large developing countries where public research programs actively engage in commercial agricultural R&D activities, they have not been examined inthe literature.