Intellectual Property Rights in Agricultural biotechnology Innovation; case of Iran

our World now faces serious problems, such as population outgrowth, shortage of food, destruction of the environment, and a limited amount of resources. These problems are closely related to plant performance in the field. Consequently, genetic engineering for plant improvement is considered as a promise for such difficulties in the new millenium. Exploring the plant response to the environmental stressful conditions would allow us to engineer plants with desired characteristics. The global area under genetically modified (GM) crops grew rapidly in the first ten years of GM technology adoption. However, the protection of innovators’ intellectual property rights (IPRs) has remained controversial, especially in developing countries, where IPR enforcement is lax. Weak enforcement of IPRs in developing countries has resulted in the failure of markets to transfer rents from the primary producers who sow GM crops to seed developers, and has reduced the innovators’ incentives to improve seed quality in developing countries. The objective of this study is to review of biotechnological IPRs in Industrialized and Developing Countries with emphasis on the status of Republic Islamic of Iran.

Keywords:

IPR , Agricultural innovation , biotechnology , industrialized countries , developing countries , Iran