The Intellectual Property–Regulatory Complex

Advances in agricultural genomics could help address pressing global issues, such as world hunger, by improving crop yield. However, overlap and conflict in intellectual property and biosafety regimes – known collectively as the “Intellectual Property–Regulatory Complex” – create significant barriers to innovation. In this collection, leading legal, policy, and economics experts analyze the impact of the Complex on agricultural genomics. They reveal how it impacts scientific advancement in ways that are underappreciated when intellectual property and biosafety regimes are examined in isolation. After identifying how the interplay between multiple regimes impedes research, development, and product distribution, they propose solutions that would further the aims of the current intellectual property and biosafety regimes while enabling growth and innovation in agricultural genomics.

Emily Marden is counsel at Sidley Austin LLP in the food and drug regulatory practice in Palo Alto, California, and research associate in law at the University of British Columbia, where she teaches and directs research on genomics and innovation in agriculture and the life sciences. R. Nelson Godfrey is an associate in the Vancouver office of an intellectual property and technology law firm whose practice includes advising clients on litigation, compliance and regulatory matters, and licencing transactions. He has written extensively on issues relating to intellectual property and regulatory regimes and their interaction with research and knowledge translation, with particular emphasis on topics relating to genomics research and living modified organisms. Rachael Manion is a senior associate at a public policy consulting firm based in Ottawa that serves the health and life sciences sectors. She draws on her work as a regulatory lawyer for the federal Department of Justice, where she advised Health Canada on the application of existing statutory regimes to novel technologies and the development of science policy.

Contributors: Vernon Bachor, Hannes Dempewolf, Rochelle Cooper Dreyfuss, Regiane Garcia, Gregory Graff, Jeremy Hall, Sarah Hartley, Ronald J. Herring, Stelvia Matos, Chidi Oguamanam, Loren H. Rieseberg, Matthew R. Voell, and David Zilberman

The essays contained in this volume are best read together; as a collection they paint a full picture of the Complex as it relates to agricultural innovation. Even so, each part and chapter can stand alone. The collection achieves the goal of a focused discussion, but one that is appealing to a broad readership. Researchers, farmers, academics, innovators, or any socially conscious person will benefit from some part of the collection: agronomic innovations affect everyone. In the absence of an aversion to acronyms or abbreviations, this book is sure to please.