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The international stakes of biotechnology and the patent war: Considerations after the uruguay round

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Abstract

The article explores briefly some problems associated with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for biotechnological inventions. IPR are inadequate for the protection of new advanced technologies and particularly for biotechnology. The problem is not only legal but mainly economic, for IPR has emerged as the major competitive weapon in the world economy. In this context, the main role of IPR is as a mechanism for the appropriation of new inventions, and as an instrument to deter rivals and control markets. The current debate, including the negotiations of the Uruguay Round, are not so much concerned with the search for legal mechanisms adapted to the characteristics of biotechnologies as they are for the building up of an efficient appropriability mechanism on the international level for biotechnological inventions and with mechanisms for the control of their diffusion.

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  1. Paolo Bifani
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Paolo Bifani, a native of Italy, was former senior economist at the United Nations Environment Program and former economist of the Economic Commission for Latin America. A Professor at the Universidad Automa de Madrid, he also has lectured at other universities in Europe and Latin America. He is a consultant with the UNCTAD, FAO, WIPO, ILO, the EC, and the Italian Agency for Energy and Biotechnology (ENEA). He has published more than fifty publications as chapters in books or in specialized magazines, as well as five books. His main areas of research and publications are on the interrelationship between environment and development, natural resource economics, science and technology policy, new technologies — especially biotechnologies — and international trade.

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Bifani, P. The international stakes of biotechnology and the patent war: Considerations after the uruguay round. Agric Hum Values 10, 47–59 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02217604

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02217604

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