11 pages, Private-sector dominance of plant breeding constitutes the present norm of organic seed genetics research, which has generated concerns in the organic farming community in this era of robust intellectual property protections. Intellectual property restrictions primarily in the form of certificates, patents, and contractual arrangements are blamed for stifling the innovation of organic seed varieties. To better understand the challenges small-scale and university-based breeders and researchers face in organic corn seed genetic development, this article provides an overview of intellectual property structures surrounding seed innovation and sharing. After describing the legal landscape in which organic corn seed research and development occurs, the article details research efforts exploring the veracity of claims that contractual arrangements (in the form of seed-sharing agreements between breeders and universities) stifle the innovation of organic varieties. In doing so, the article describes the search methodology utilized and highlights a critical barrier to research: the closely guarded nature of private contracts that parties are reluctant to reveal. While we were able to identify several data points that highlighted the importance of seed-sharing agreements as a part of the intellectual property regime controlling organics research and breeding, we were unable to obtain contracts or identify disputes over contractual language to further analyze. Such contractual language only becomes available upon consent and release by individual parties to the contract or by litigation that exposes the contractual language, both of which we attempted to explore and utilize. The article concludes with a discussion of why contractual arrangements in the context of organic corn seed development are an informative piece of the intellectual property puzzle worth exploring, as well as future points of research necessary to yield data substantiating the concerns of stakeholders in the organic seed industry.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C16485
Notes:
Pages 53-56 in "Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the American Association of Farmers' Institute Workers," St. Louis, Missouri, October 18-20, 1905. U.S.D.A. Office of Experiment Station Bulletin No. 154., Comment by Hall: "It is the experiment station and not the agricultural college that has wrought such a marvelous change in the farmers of America toward scientific agriculture. Professor Chamberlain comments upon the change in the institutes that took place soon after the Hatch Act brought into existence the experiment stations, as follows: 'It was my privilege to compare the agricultural conventions of the state (Wisconsin) at two periods separated by a decade within which the experiment station became a potent influence. The dominant intellectual and moral attitude of the earlier period was distinctly disputatious and dogmatic. .. In the second period the dominant attitude was that of scientific conference.'" (p. 54)
Second annual meeting of the Association of Agricultural College Magazines in Chicago, Illinois. Represented: Cornell Countryman (New York), Agricultural Student (Ohio), Illinois Agriculturist, Purdue Agriculturist (Indiana), Progressive Agriculturist (Oklahoma), Wisconsin Country Magazine, Penn State Farmer.
