Document Type
Article
Abstract
This Article is divided into various parts: first, a summary of international legal framework related to intellectual property and seeds. Second, the principle legal and economic differences between the State’s two main legal possibilities: plant variety protection and patents. Third, a presentation of the Brazilian legal framework to demonstrate a possible outcome even if Brazil did not accept patents on seeds or patents on genes, but only plant variety protection. Fourth, the Monsanto legal strategy of making Brazil accept patents on plants and genes. Fifth, the top-to-bottom agreements with traders based on intellectual property rights. Sixth, the agreements with competent seed companies. Seventh, the agreements with warehouses, cooperatives, and individual farmers based on the creation of an effective database and the presumption of the validity of those intellectual property rights. Eighth, the farmers’ reactions in European and Brazilian Courts, which demonstrate how fragile this strategy could be, based on the decision that results in billions of dollars in compensations against Monsanto.
Recommended Citation
Marcelo Dias Varella,
Intellectual Property and Agriculture: The Case on Soybeans and Monsanto,
18 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y
(2013).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/jtlp/vol18/iss1/3