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© 2003, Gallagher & Dawsey Co., LPA
July 2003
Ohio State University has joined a new research consortium on
biotechnology rights intended to help further the humanitarian spread
of patented technology to impoverished countries. In sum, major
universities and research institutes are joining together to pledge
that they will reserve rights in the licensing of their future
patented technology for the use of developing countries or other
humanitarian endeavors.
The impetus for this consortium came form the work of Dr. Ingo
Potrykus, a researcher at the Swiss Federal institute of Technology
who describe his research travails in a recent lecture at Ohio State.
Vitamin A deficiency is one of the leading causes of blindness in the
developing world. Potrykus and his colleagues discovered a method of
transplanting a gene to make vitamin A into rice plants, the main food
grain for a large part of the world, which traditionally does not make
the vitamin. This so called "golden rice," named for the color of its
grains, has the potential of supplying vitamin A to large numbers of
people who have no other access.
In its development, Potrykus described his frustration at the multiple
permissions his group needed to obtain to use patented technology,
including at some points, his assertion of a right to do research
without permission (see related article this issue on "Can Academic
'Experimental Use' Survive?"). Only after running into severe
regulatory and public relations roadblocks to their use of genetically
modified foods, particularly in Europe, were major companies willing
to grant the needed licenses. Often, companies were not specifically
opposed to Potrykus' work, only fearful that relaxing their grip on
licenses might have adverse effects on other commercial projects.
The consortium, now called the Public-Sector Intellectual Property
Resource for Agriculture, hopes to create a set of best practices for
universities to follow in licensing their developing technologies to
private industry. The traditional licensing away of all rights
deprives universities of allowing humanitarian use, which Potrykus
broadly defined as cooperative uses with no partners standing to make
financial gain. The consortium plans to concentrate on subsistence
crops grown in Third World countries and specialty crops grown in
industrial nations that are too small in scope to interest large
agricultural companies. From a pragmatic view, some commentators also
believe that the move is also intended to forestall broad attacks on
international patent systems by developing countries. The
universities, including Ohio State, are inviting other major plant
research facilities to join the consortium. |
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