Biotech Updates

Canola Commission Studies Benefits of Expiring Canola Patents

January 12, 2007

Canada’s Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission (SCDC) is determining whether several canola-related patents that are expiring soon will benefit farmers. Last year the SCDC commissioned a study to determine patent issues related to herbicide canola. These involves finding out whether protected varieties can be used in research and also to explore if there are economic benefits on developing and commercializing a generic herbicide tolerant canola.

The commissioned study has determined that: a) research exemptions exist but are currently limited to the pharmaceutical industry, b) regulatory procedures for risk assessment of novel traits now takes longer (compared to 5 years ago); and c) the benefits of farmers through savings gained from reduced technology use agreement (TUA) cost is still unknown. The report also mentioned that it is possible that companies holding the current patents may extend the intellectual property protection by filing new ones that just pertain to uninventive additions.

The complete press release is at http://www.saskcanola.com/news/2007-0109-patents.html. The full report can be accessed at http://www.saskcanola.com/pdfs/scdc-patent-report.pdf.