Argentina: The Old Developmental Model

Abstract

By 2013, the Argentine IP regime on seeds stood out for its virtual immunity to the post-1980 global upward ratchet of IP protection launched by the US government and to the attempts by Monsanto to establish a private IP regime in South American soybean agriculture. Argentina was the first country in the Southern Cone to have legislation for IP on plant varieties: the 1973 Law of Seeds and Phytogenic Creations. By contemporary standards, this legislation does not provide strong protection for private IP rights on seeds. It balances the interests of seed companies, rural producers and the state by instituting plant breeder’s rights on plant varieties with three exceptions:

• the right of rural producers to save seeds;

• the right of plant breeders to use existing protected varieties to develop new ones without consent from the original cultivar owner;

• the right of the state to declare the restricted public use of certain varieties in cases of national interest (an exceptional and temporary enlargement of the public domain).¹