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IV.
39.
PROPRIETARY RIGHTS AND PATENTING
The private sector in developed countries is playing an eminent role in biotechnology development because of the vast potential market of biotechnology products. Involvement of the private sector in developing countries, except in the Republic of Korea and to some extent in China (foreign multi-nationals), India, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand, is rather limited. This is attributed partly to (i) vague government policies regarding the private sector, (ii) unclear policies or no policies/views on patents and intellectual property rights, (iii) poor linkages between public and private sectors, (iv) low purchasing power for new products which are usually priced high and are out of the reach of the majority of resource- poor farmers and low-income consumers, and (v) inadequate local expertise and infrastructure and R&D support to new biotechnology.
40.
Private sector's interest in biotechnology R&D stems from the possibility offered by the new technologies to be patented. Developed countries have evolved laws to allow private companies to obtain proprietary rights to new technologies for commercial exploitation. These countries generally do not accept the principle of free sharing of genetically engineered materials and related information. On the other hand, developing countries, by and large, consider that agriculture resources are "the common heritage and constitute basic needs of mankind" and they seek to exclude biological inventions from protection.
41.
Restricting the access to modern technologies and materials through privatization and proprietary rights is certainly a matter of concern for policy-makers as well as plant scientists, especially in developing countries. What is suitable for industrialized "seed-rich" countries may necessarily not be suitable for "gene-rich" developing countries with diversified and sometimes subsistence agriculture practised under varying agro-ecological and socio-economic settings. Commensurate with their capabilities, priorities, and prospects of sharing technologies with developed countries, each developing country could develop plant biotechnology programmes to achieve specific and carefully selected objectives. The private sector can play a very important role and this capacity should be fully exploited by forging appropriate linkages between public and private sectors. While doing so, equity considerations should not be lost sight of. International cooperation in this field should be based on the premise that each country would succeed in instituting national programmes and at the same time would establish effective synergistic international cooperation.
42.
FAO has for quite some time been debating the issue of free availability of genetic resources, including genetically engineered materials, to bonafide users · plant breeders and scientists. In 1983, the Organization evolved a unique global system on Plant Genetic Resources consisting of a basic legal framework, the International Undertaking to ensure conservation, use and availability of plant germplasm; and intergovernmental forum, the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources; and a financial mechanism for funding conservation work, plant breeding and seed production work, the International Fund. The very first Article of the Undertaking aims at ensuring that plant genetic resources are freely available to all those who need them.
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