Open AccessAn intellectual property sharing initiative in agricultural biotechnology: development of broadly accessible technologies for plant transformation
Author(s) -
ChiHam Cecilia L.,
Boettiger Sara,
FigueroaBalderas Rosa,
Bird Sara,
Geoola Josef N.,
Zamora Pablo,
AlandeteSaez Monica,
Bennett Alan B.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
plant biotechnology journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.525
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1467-7652
pISSN - 1467-7644
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7652.2011.00674.x
Subject(s) - intellectual property , agricultural biotechnology , agriculture , microbiology and biotechnology , food security , business , work (physics) , resource (disambiguation) , economic growth , biology , political science , economics , engineering , law , computer science , mechanical engineering , ecology , computer network
Summary The Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA) was founded in 2004 by the Rockefeller Foundation in response to concerns that public investments in agricultural biotechnology benefiting developing countries were facing delays, high transaction costs and lack of access to important technologies due to intellectual property right (IPR) issues. From its inception, PIPRA has worked broadly to support a wide range of research in the public sector, in specialty and minor acreage crops as well as crops important to food security in developing countries. In this paper, we review PIPRA’s work, discussing the failures, successes, and lessons learned during its years of operation. To address public sector’s limited freedom‐to‐operate, or legal access to third‐party rights, in the area of plant transformation, we describe PIPRA’s patent ‘pool’ approach to develop open‐access technologies for plant transformation which consolidate patent and tangible property rights in marker‐free vector systems. The plant transformation system has been licensed and deployed for both commercial and humanitarian applications in the United States (US) and Africa, respectively.