Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

296 SESSION IV
should understand that he is in the wrong. This holds
true even if he has not signed any contract at the time of
procuring seeds (that is, if he recycles or if he buys seeds
illegally from a neighbour). He is pirating… Moreover,
this pirating of seeds could cost the farmers hundreds
of dollars per acre by way of damage, interest and legal
costs, apart from having to undergo the inspection of
his field and records over many years.” 21
Data from US Patent and Trademark Office (US-
PTO) 22 shows that among the 4,331 patents on
invention in biotechnology and other processes used in
food and agriculture issued for US companies (excluding
subsidiaries) during 1976-2000, 1,568 patents are
related to plant technology.
To completely reap benefit from the strong IPRs,
agro-chemical companies have done its best to acquire
seed companies. Thus, it is not surprising that few
giant corporations, which once famous with its agrochemical,
control almost 100 per cent of the world’s
GM seed market. The few giants are DuPont/Pioneer
(USA), Monsanto (USA), Syngenta (a merger between
AstraZeneca and Novartis which is also a merger
between Ciba Geigy and Sandoz), Dow Chemical
(USA), and Aventis (a merger between Germany’s
Hoechst, France’s Rhône-Poulenc and AgrEvo, a joint
subsidiary of Hoechst and Schering). 23
The result of the merging is the concentration of
patents on agricultural biotechnology. Data from
US-PTO, analysed by Economic Research Service
of the US Department of Agriculture, suggested that
overall concentration of ownership of agricultural
biotechnology patents has increased since 1995 after
accounting for merger acquisition with in the industry
making process of IPR system in the both countries.
Since the world today is ruled by the World Trade
Organization (WTO), which is a battle field between
developed and developing countries, the rule of WTO
is the rule of the world. Developed countries, which
support IPRs, won the battle by making the WTO
to adopt the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) during the
Uruguay Round in 1995.
TRIPs, which its first line states that it desires to “reduce
distortions and impediments of international trade”, 24
requires WTO member parties to provide protection
system for IPRs. One of the most provocative points of
TRIPs is that it requires member parties to legislate for
the protection of new plant varieties and a mandatory
patent protection of microorganism, non-biological
and microbiological process. 25
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
To achieve this, TRIPs provides WTO member parties
two choices of IPR protection systems: patents or sui
generis (Article 27). The latter, by theory, is a more
flexible IPR system which allows members to design
their own system to protect IPR while exclude from
patentability. (Article 27.3(b))
However, by doing, any developing countries desired to
design the sui generis to protect the rights of their rural
communities and local plant varieties have to think
twice. They might have to take into account the weight
of American trade hegemony. Both Indonesia and the
Philippines had faced with this threat.
As member parties of the World Trade Organization,
Indonesia and the Philippines have obligation to issue
new laws and revised its existing laws related to IPR to
make them harmonize with the provision of TRIPs.
The two countries have created their Plant Variety
Protection Act (PVP Act), which is a reflection of UPOV
1991 which aims to protect rights of plant breeders
rather than farmers, and amended the old version of
each own Patent Act. Both PVP and the Patent Act have
crucial roles in contributing adverse impacts on GMOs
to the Indonesian and Filipinos farmers, particularly in
terms of socio-economics.
As aforementioned, in the making process of the
IPR system the two countries have to be careful that
their IPR system will not lead to unnecessary war on
trade with trade hegemonies, the US is in particular.
Although having a strong trade power in hand, the US
uses another tactics to double secure that IPR system
of the both countries will be delivered in the form it
prefers.
In 1997, the US and the government of the Philippines—
which once was colonized by the US for years—jointly
established a project called AGILE—Accelerating
Growth, Investment and Liberalization with Equity—
which is hundred per cent funded by the US Agency for
International Development (USAID).
According to the website of the US Embassy in Manila,
AGILE was developed to “provide support to accelerate
economic policy reforms, generate growth, help create
jobs, and reduce poverty”.
However, According to Southeast Asia Regional
Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE),
a Manila-based NGO aims to empower farmers and
indigenous community through agricultural research,