Farmers’ rights and intellectual property rights : reconciling conflicting concepts

This paper discusses the different concepts of Farmers’ Rights and Intellectual Property Rights and their impacts on plant genetic resources. It describes the nature and purpose of both concepts and the relevant national and international institutional frameworks before outlining areas of conflict and highlighting possible options for resolving these differences at both national and international level.

At the international level the authors look in detail at the WTO TRIPs agreement and the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources arguing that the successful conclusion of revisions to this is crucial to this reconciliation. On the national level the paper looks at the use of sui generis PVP legislation by many developing countries with various provisions for the implementation of Farmers’ Rights but, as the authors indicate, it is still not decided if these provisions are in accordance with country obligations under WTO rules.