Intellectual property rights

WIPO's World Intellectual Property Indicators 2014 provides a wide range of indicators covering the following areas of intellectual property: patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs, microorganisms and plant variety protection. It draws on data from national and regional IP offices, WIPO and the World Bank.

Private investment in agricultural biotechnology research by seed companies is increasingly rapidly. The privatization of intellectual property, and the associated emergence of the private sector as the major force in agricultural technology generation, is beginning to have a profound impact on farmers and researchers in industrial and developing countries. The report looks at intellectual property right (IPR) from various perspectives - industry, International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs), and national systems and universities.

This paper illustrates the potential for developing sustainable environment management practices such as BioTrade in Latin America. These results are presented through case studies built on the experiences of BioTrade practitioners and programmes at the national, regional and international levels such as SMEs, multinational corporations (MNCs), financial entities and clusters.

This book is about the conservation of genetic diversity of wild plants in situ in their natural surroundings, primarily in existing protected areas but also outside conventional protected areas. The principles outlined are equally applicable for the in situ genetic conservation of any wild plant species, whether the aim is to maintain a species threatened by habitat fragmentation, over-collection from the wild or a species that has potential use as a gene donor to our crops.

The compendium shows how the scope of research has evolved at IFPRI, as well as in the wider development community. It covers a host of topics that bear on food and nutrition security, including development strategies, markets and trade, technologies for agricultural production, natural resource management, conflicts and natural disasters, subsidies and safety nets, gender roles, and health. Research on each topic is set into context to show how thinking has progressed over time.

Presents the plenary papers and proceedings of a workshop which addressed such topics as goals of inventors, owners, and users; implications of non-U.S. protection, procedures, and practices for U.S. innovators; the status of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection; science-based identification of plant genetic materials; and national legislative issues.

The term agrobiodiversity refers to genetic variability in plants, animals and micro-organisms of economic value. In the past, several thousand plants were used for purposes of food, feed, fibre, fuelwood, fertilizer and medicine. As agriculture advanced, the human food secruity systems began to depend not only on fewer and fewer plant species, but also on a small number of varieties. Such genetic vulnerability to pests and diseases as well as to soil and climatic stresses. At the same time, the habitats rich in biodiversity like forests were getting destroyed.