Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding

Purpose and expected outcomes
Intellectual property rights are necessary to preserve the competitive edge over the competition by a company that
owns an invention. They also protect a valuable resource that the property owner can later license to a third party for
profit. The development and application of biotechnology raises ethical questions, some of which are serious enough to
generate significant opposition from the consuming public. Breeders need to be aware of the local and international
issues pertaining to public acceptance and rights and regulations affecting the biotechnology industry. The purpose
of this chapter is to discuss intellectual property and ethical issues associated with the breeding of plants, especially as
they pertain to the use of biotechnology. After studying this chapter, the student should be able to:
1 Discuss the concept and importance of intellectual property in plant breeding.
2 Explain what a patent is, discuss the types of patents, and what can be patented.
3 Discuss patent infringement.
4 Discuss how ethics impacts the development and application of plant biotechnology.
5 Discuss the agencies and their specific roles in the regulation of the biotechnology industry.
6 Discuss international biotechnology regulation issues.
7 Discuss public perception of biotechnology and its implication to breeding.
Concept of intellectual property
Intellectual property consists of principles that a society
observes to ensure that an inventor is protected from
unfair use of his or her invention by others. To achieve
this, a variety of legal provisions are made to protect
against improper use of another’s original ideas and creations.
The most common of such provisions are copyrights,
confidential information, breeders’ rights,
trademarks, and patents.
Copyrights ©
Copyright protection is commonly sought by people
or entities for the protection of such things as aesthetic
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Issues in the application
of biotechnology in plant
breeding
creations, music, painting, works of literature, and computer
software. It is of little use to plant breeders except
for the protection of published research results, or
inventions such as computer-based tools.
Confidential information
This protection is limited in its scope and pertains to an
organization. Its success depends on the extent people
can be trusted to keep a secret. The term “confidential
information” is used to apply to the variety of strategies
used by companies to protect their unpatented inventions,
in the hope that it will not be leaked into the
public domain. The common strategies include trade
secrets and proprietary information. An invention