Intellectual Property Enhancing Corporate Monopoly and Bioserfdom

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Intellectual PropertyEnhancing Corporate
Monopoly and Bioserfdom

• Natalie, Chelsie, Stephen, Lordell

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Intellectual Property

• Refers to a group of laws
• Patents
• Plants Breeders rights
• Copy right
• Trade Marks
• Trade secrets
• Intended to protect inventors and artists from
  losing control over their ideas

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The evolution of Intellectual Property is U.S.
Agriculture

• In the past, farmers were the primary breeders of
  new plant varieties in the U.S.
• The Plant Patent Act of 1930 was created to
  reward developers of new plants, but excluded
  food crops because food was considered too
  precious to give up to monopolies.
• The seed industry lobbied for Congress to pass
  the Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) in 1970
  that rewarded the developers of new important
  vegetable varieties.
• The PVPA did give an exemption that allowed
  farmers to use these new varieties in
  experiments, allowed them to sell small amounts
  of seed to other farmers, and allowed them to
  reuse seeds from their harvests without paying a
  royalty.
• But in 1994 the PVPA was amended, and this
  eliminated the exemption for farmers when it came
  to the use and distribution of intellectually
  created seeds.

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Control of Biotechnology

• In the 1980s the US patent laws were redefined
  for exclusive monopoly control of all biological
  products and processes.
• Thereby with the arrival of genetic engineering,
  it did not take long to redefine what is
  considered human inventions and legally
  patentable.

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Control of Biotechnology cont.

• US government took giant steps to accommodate
  corporate desires to patent life in a decade, for
  example
• In the 1980s the US supreme court ruled that
  genetically engineered microorganisms are
  patentable.
• In 1985 the US patent and trademark office ruled
  that plants could qualify under the stronger
  utility patent laws.
• In 1987 the US patent and trademark office ruled
  that animals are also patentable.

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Control of Biotechnology cont.

• As a result of these desires
• Virtually every single living organism in the US
  became subject matters including human genetic
  materials.
• This is why intellectual property has been a
  major factor in the growth and consolidation of
  the US biotechnology industry.

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Biotech Industry Braces for Supreme Court Case

• Pioneer (now owned by DuPont) sued Belmond-based
  Farm Advantage in 1998, claiming the company had
  no right to buy Pioneer seed and then resell it.
  Technically, the Supreme Court is being asked to
  decide whether sexually reproduced plants are
  patentable subject matter under U.S. law.
• the company holds a patent on the germplasm that
  makes this corn genetically different from other
  corn varieties or hybrids although it was not
  genetically modified.
• The Farm Advantage owner took the company to
  court arguing congress never intended to make
  plants part of the patent system
• the fact that the Supreme Court has chosen to
  hear the case is cause for concern in the biotech
  industry, since the main reason the court hears a
  case is either because it wants to change the law
  or reconsider it.

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The Gene Giants

• The power of exclusive monopoly patent gives
  companies the legal right to determine who gets
  access to proprietary science and at what price.
• The top ten seed companies control 1/3 of 24.7
  billion dollars in commercial seed market,
  however corporate share is much higher in
  specific seed sectors and for certain crops.
• The patented seed is the ideal delivery system
  for a package of proprietary technologies for
  gene inputs.

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Gene Giants Cont.

• Forty percent of U.S. vegetable seeds come from a
  single source. The top 5 veggie companies
  control 75 of the global vegetable seed market.
• 73 of the corn seed market is controlled by
  DuPont and Monsanto.
• Four companies control 47 of the soybean seed
  market. 25 of this is farmers saved, not newly
  purchased.
• So, exclusive monopoly patents are giving a
  steadily shrinking number of corporate Gene
  Giants unprecedented control over the biological
  basis for commercial agriculture.

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Bioserfdom

• Large companies attempting to dictate how farmers
  will farm under what conditions.
• Food production is being taken out of the hands
  of independent farmers.
• Under US patent law, it is illegal to save patent
  seeds and reuse them.
• 1.4 billion people depend on farm saved seeds as
  their primary seed source.
• With patent laws, the communities risk losing
  control of their farming systems and becoming
  dependant on outside sources.
• Large companies require its customers to sign a
  gene licensing agreement.

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Concentration of U.S. agricultural biotechnology
patent awards among top 10 patent holders,
1976-2000 including adjustment for mergers and
acquisition, 1988-2002

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Intellectual Property

• Intellectual property is the oil of the 21st
  century. Look at the richest men a hundred years
  ago they all made their money extracting natural
  resources or moving them around. All todays
  richest men have made their money out of
  intellectual property.
• -Mark Getty
• The future of agriculture depends on the
  promotion and protection of the farmers
  inalienable right to save and exchange seed. If
  we are to reclaim agriculture, we must resist
  monopoly control of life

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• Questions
• Or
• Comments

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References

• Shand, Hope J. Intellectual Property Enhancing
  Corporate Monopoly and Bioserfdom. Fatal
  Harvest The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture.
  Ed. Andrew Kimbrell. Foundation for Deep Ecology,
  2002. 321-325.
• www.USDA.com
• www.biotech-info.net