遺伝子組換え作物の特許保護と公共領域 : 農民特権をめぐって
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概要
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In the 1990s, genetically modified (GM) crops rapidly gained cropping area and market share. As a result, GM crops contaminated non-GM traditional crops through pollination and other natural phenomena. Furthermore, the governments in the USA and Canada have concluded that GM crops can be patentable in that they can be approved as inventions with novelty and usefulness. In the meantime, the "farmers' privilege" provided in the UPOV (The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) conventions have traditionally granted farmers the right to save and replant the seeds obtained from their own property. The patent protection for GM seeds prohibits farmers from reusing them without permission from the developer even if the GM crops voluntarily grow on the farmers' land. The main focus of this paper is on the protection of farmers' privilege from the 'gene contamination' which causes the voluntary growth of GM seeds. This paper considers the fact that the patent protection for GM seeds developed by biomultinationals has restricted farmers' privileges. It refers to the final decision by the Supreme Court of Canada for the lawsuit in which Monsanto Co. sued Mr. Schmeiser, a Canadian farmer, against his illegal utilization of the patented GM canola. In this decision, the Supreme Court concluded that Mr. Schmeiser infringed on the patent rights held by Monsanto. Nevertheless, it did not require Mr. Schmeiser to pay any compensation for his saving and replanting of the voluntarily grown GM canola seeds for the sale of its harvest since he made no use of the 'utility' of the GM seed, i.e., herbicide tolerance. The conclusion is that the spreading scope of patentability to plants will diminish the 'public domain' of seed resources where farmers can freely save and replant them under the farmers' privilege. Hardin's 'tragedy of commons' argues that the absence of property rights for common-pool resources will lead to their over-utilization or destruction. However, this paper insists that the patent protection for GM seeds will lead to the underutilization of plant genetic resources by preventing farmers from saving and replanting them in their public domain.
- 北海道東海大学の論文
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