Intellectual Property Rights and Agro-Biotechnology: Limitations and Alternatives

Abstract

Intellectual property rights have led to stimulating innovation in different fields such as biotechnology. Patents, plant variety protection, industrial secrets and material transfer agreements are legal terms individually and/or collectively protecting materials or processes deemed necessary for agricultural-biotech product development. Such terms may often accumulate to such an extent that this hinders a product’s development and commercial release. Some current initiatives are aimed at facilitating access to basic technology for agricultural-biotech product development, including public organisation cooperation networks, requests for special licences for humanitarian programmes and open access projects. These may be good short-and medium-term alternatives for carrying out biotechnological research in countries like Colombia.

Keywords

• propiedad intelectual
• biotecnología
• organismos genétiamente modificados (OGM)
• Intellectual propperty
• biotechnology
• genetically modified organisms