Pros and cons of introducing plant patent rights

 2011/09/03 Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) Taiwan's government wants to introduce patent rights for plants as part of efforts to promote the development of the country's biotechnology industry, but is facing opposition from some local farmers, environmental protection activists and scholars. Wang Mei-hua, director-general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Intellectual Property Office, said recently she was worried that the office's draft amendment to the Patent Act to introduce plant patents may not pass the Legislative Yuan this year. The amendment bill was screened by the relevant legislative committees in April but failed to proceed to the second reading because of disputes over a major revision to the 24th article, which currently states that animals, plants and essential biological processes for production of animals or plants are not entitled to invention patent. Wang said her office hopes the bill, which seeks to amend 108 articles, add 39 new ones and remove 15, will clear the Legislature in the new session that will start in mid-September. However, she said, after hearing the many opposing voices at a public hearing on the amendment bill last month, she fears it may not be passed soon. At the Aug. 16 hearing, Warren Kuo, a professor at the Department of Agronomy of National Taiwan University who specializes in seed technology and biotech law, argued that the introduction of patent rights for plants is not necessary because plants are already included in the protection of the variety rights. If patent rights for plants are adopted, local farmers and small-and-medium seed breeding companies will not be able to use special plant traits in the research and development of new breeds without worry they may be violating patent rights, Kuo said. Individuals or small seed breeding companies will not be able to find unique genes in plants that decide plant traits, only big cross-nation enterprises will be able to so, the scholar said. Adopting patent rights for plants will eventually lead to big companies' monopoly of good plant traits, which would prevent small breeding and research institutes, as well as farmers, from using them to create new varieties, Kuo contended. Echoing Kuo's views, Taiwan Orchid Growers Association President Kao Chi-ching pointed out that Taiwan's orchid industry could not break into the international flora market without the diversified research and development of small and medium-sized breeding companies on the island. He said adopting patent rights for plants will only benefit big business groups in the field of seed breeding, not the numerous small-scale breeders in Taiwan. In response, Wang explained that patent rights and variety rights are two different types of protection that can exist alongside each other. Many countries, like the United States, Japan and some European nations, all have the two systems to ensure full protection of inventions involving plants, she added. She further said that variety rights protect only the appearance of a plant, such as the purple color of a species of flower. But patents are used to protect the breeding techniques, which means protection of researchers' hard work, she said. There are currently 70 biotech departments and institutes at universities around Taiwan, and every year, around 10,000 graduates enter the biotech industry, Wang said. Without plant patent rights, the country's protection of intellectual property rights will be incomplete, she said. Furthermore, in the absence of a good protection system, foreign companies will not be willing to invest in Taiwan's biotech sector, she warned.