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Do you think farmers ’ rights are adequately protected by law? Are there any
ambiguities?
I
think we have a good legislative framework for protecting farmers ’ rights.Our
Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act 2001(PPVFR)is an amalgam of
UPOV and the International Treaty for Protection of Plant Genetic Resources (ITPGR)and
attempts to give both farmers and breeders a fair amount of justice.
The
PPVFR is a TRIPS-compliant legislation,which does justice to the tribal and
farming communities by acknowledging their manifold contributions to
biodiversity conservation,agriculture and food security.
That
it has left UPOV and diehard anti-IPR groups unhappy is a different matter all
together.There are a few critics who argue that there is ambiguity in the term
‘exchange ’ used in the PPVFR in the context of farmers ’ rights over ‘produce ’
arising from a protected variety.
In
my view,this is not a major issue since the right to ‘market ’ produce arising
from a protected variety is clearly included in farmers ’ rights.. Besides
farmers also enjoy status as breeders in our legislation.We have provisions to
register landraces that are not registrable in UPOV modelled legislations.
There are many efforts to develop patent sharing models, have you done anything
on this line?
We
do not have patents on plants or plant varieties in India. Therefore, I don ’t
think there is any need to try out any patent sharing models in the Indian
context.I have,however, been disseminating knowledge on PPVFR amongst coffee and
tea growers in the Western Ghats. |
What kind of open source model (along the lines of software) do you think will
work in biology?
In
my view,the open source (OS) model for genetic resources is a great hype. When
you have legislations like we have in India that encourage farmers and community
rights, where is the need for OS models?
Also, the real utility of OS is that it helps improve quality of software
through easily accessible product enhancement facilitation in cyberspace. Such a
possibility is, however, not easy for ‘material ’ genetic resources.
Do you agree with WIPO ’s approach to protect indigenous knowledge or should
India develop a sui generis system?
Yes.In my view,that there is no inconsistency between India ’s efforts for a sui
generis legislation with that of WIPO ’s efforts for a global convention so long
as both provide for effective protection of indigenous knowledge through
enabling benefit-
sharing mechanisms. What would you recommend for better management of genetic
resources in a developing country like India? Enforce application of prior
informed consent at the national and local levels, have strong Material Transfer
Agreements and ensure that you have your ‘value ’ numbers for genetic resources
right. Without this, the benefit-sharing arrangement would not work well for
India.
What changes would you suggest in Indian patent law for better protection to
indigenous knowledge?
The
existing provisos (in Section 3 of India ’s Patent Act 1970)that prohibit
patenting of inventions that arise from traditional knowledge are quite
adequate. However, we need to read our Patents Act with the benefit-sharing
guidelines contained in India ’s Biodiversity Act 2002 and its rules.
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