IPR Regimes and Public Sector R&D

The Human Genome Sequencing Project (HGP) spurred many similar projects that sequence crop varieties. One example is the International Rice Genome Project to sequence the variety Nippon bare, a Japonica or temperate type of rice. China, in another public sector effort, tackled the genome of one parent of the super hybrid rice, an Indica or tropical type. Giant seed companies Monsanto and Syngenta also entered the foray, probably struck by the potential economic and business windfall from the rice genome sequencing project. Monsanto quickly shared their draft sequence to the public, while Syngenta has applied for patents for its sequence data.

What will be the impact of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) on publicly funded research? IPRs grant holders all legal rights to the property they created and prevent others from taking advantage of their ingenuity. Ronilo A. Beronio, head of the Philippine Rice Research Institute’s Intellectual Property Management Office, said that the Institute should see IPR as facilitating rice breeding, and added that with IPR, researchers can foresee possible complications in their use of technologies and circumvent the problems at a very early stage. IPRs will also help researchers obtain valuable information about a genome of interest. Dr. Leocadio S. Sebastian, PhilRice’s executive director, admitted that public sector R&D in the Philippines is passing through a challenging phase with advances in genomics under the current IPR regime. “We in public sector institutions should act immediately, redefine our roles, and upgrade our expertise with new norms in R&D due to IPR”, Dr. Sebastian said.

 For more information, contact SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center at spt@searca.org.