Abstract
Until recently, for developing and emerging economies intellectual property policy taking was the norm rather than policy making. What we mean is that the developed countries set the standards for other countries to follow. This may still be the general trend but developing nations are starting to devise their own policy approaches that other countries are imitating. This shift towards policy making is certainly noticeable. But it is not yet hugely significant. Conformity to the recommendations (and still in some cases the dictates) of developed countries, their industries, and experts from the Global North remains very common. The question arises of whether developing countries continue to be policy takers or have begun to develop their own counter-norms which are viable. As we will see there is evidence that some developing countries are indeed “translating” international obligations in some imaginative ways that may (or may not) promote their interests better. It may be that divergences between Europe and the United States in how innovations in plant science and agricultural biotechnology are protected inadvertently encourages the adoption of more flexible perspectives than would otherwise have been envisaged. However, there are massive policy challenges ahead especially due to the lack of empirical evidence on the effects of different intellectual property rules concerning plants on rural development and food security that could be used to shape law and policy. This goes far in explaining why only a handful of countries has sought alternative approaches. Further research is desperately needed.
Professor of International Governance, University of Leeds, UK.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Heitz (1987).
- 3.
FIS later merged with ASSINSEL to form the International Seed Federation.
- 4.
“The [1953 German] Seed Law played a substantial part in the making of the UPOV Convention”, Heitz (1987).
- 5.
Sage (2002).
- 6.
Formally, the Accord Portant Revision de l’Accord de Bangui du 2 Mars 1977 Instituant une Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle.
- 7.
Deere (2009).
- 8.
Deere (2009).
- 9.
Prifti (2015).
- 10.
Article 17(2), UPOV 1991. For a thorough treatment of the European unitary plant variety right as provided under the EU Regulation 2100/94 and its implementing rules, see Würtenberger et al. (2015).
- 11.
- 12.
Louwaars et al. (2009).
- 13.
- 14.
Gilbert (2016).
- 15.
Some genetic technologies might in fact counteract this trend.
- 16.
- 17.
Kingsbury (2009).
- 18.
For extended discussions on this issue and reviews of policy measures to address it by different countries, see Halewood (2016). The European Union does provide for limited derogations allowing for the cultivation and marketing of certain locally adapted and threatened agricultural varieties, or landraces. See Commission Directive 2008/62/EC of 20 June 2008 providing for certain derogations for acceptance of agricultural landraces and varieties which are naturally adapted to the local and regional conditions and threatened by genetic erosion and for marketing of seed and seed potatoes of those landraces and varieties; Commission Directive 2009/145/EC of 26 November 2009 providing for certain derogations, for acceptance of vegetable landraces and varieties which have been traditionally grown in particular localities and regions and are threatened by genetic erosion and of vegetable varieties with no intrinsic value for commercial crop production but developed for growing under particular conditions and for marketing of seed of those landraces and varieties.
- 19.
Brokensha (1999).
- 20.
World Bank (2006).
- 21.
UPOV (2005).
- 22.
Rangnekar (2013).
- 23.
Kochupillai (2016).
- 24.
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Dutfield, G. (2019). The Globalisation of Plant Variety Protection: Are Developing Countries Still Policy Takers?. In: Correa, C., Seuba, X. (eds) Intellectual Property and Development: Understanding the Interfaces. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2856-5_13
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