Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture No. 3/05
IPR innovation and the evolution of biotechnology in developing countries
David Zilberman and Gregory Graff
University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Abstract
The emergence of agricultural biotechnology has altered the way new
seed varieties are being produced. Some basic innovations are products
of the educational industrial complex, where public sectors introduce
basic concepts; however, the final developed technologies are
appropriated by the private sector. The private sector underinvests in
biotechnologies that serve the needs of the poor in the developing
world, and in small specialty crops in the developed world. In these
cases, public resources must be allocated to investments in the
development of biotechnologies. While developers of technology in the
private sector are provided “freedom to operate” in the IPR thicket,
biotechnology in the public sector may be hampered by constrained
access to IPRs. We introduce the principles of design for institutions
referred to as a clearinghouse, which will aim to address the IPR
constraints of developers of technology for the poor by reducing
transaction costs by increasing the transparency of ownership of IPRs
and providing mechanisms to accelerate access. The clearinghouse may
establish a set of accessible technologies that will be available to
researchers and may be used for negotiation to obtain access for
proprietary technology. There are several organizations that serve as
clearinghouses, and their activities are described.
Keywords: intellectual property rights (IPR), clearinghouse, innovations, developing countries
JEL: Q 190
Vol. 44 (2005), No. 3: 247-266