Seeds of Change: How Expiring Patents are Cultivating Agricultural Diversity

Intellectual property laws, particularly patents, play a key role in the commercialization of agricultural innovations. Director Peter A. Jackman was quoted in this article, which takes a closer look at the challenges between promoting biodiversity and ensuring food security while navigating the legal pressures of patent filings. Farmers and seed companies rely on patents for protection, but these same laws can limit genetic variety and access to crucial seeds.

Peter commented “Aside from validating sustainable innovations, patents can provide a commercial advantage over competitors by establishing a proprietary leadership position in the agricultural market and forcing them to spend money to design around or license the technology. Patents can also generate financial rewards through royalty-bearing licences and create valuable trading assets to help assure freedom-to-operate through cross-licences.”

The article continues to explain how crucial patents are for fostering innovation in agriculture and when asked how patents protect innovation of the farm, Jackman commented, “Patents provide a vital incentive as they block competitors from using the innovator’s claimed technology without having to endure the costly resources of development. For small agrochemical businesses or startups, the entire company’s value may depend on the strength of its patents since without significant patent protection; larger companies can simply copy the products of a smaller competitor without recourse,” explained Jackman.

“The patent owner can only exclude third parties from making, using, selling or importing the invention,” said Jackman.

“So agrochemical companies need to be keenly aware of third-party patents and invest in strategies for having freedom-to-operate, such as design-around and invalidity strategies for non-expired patents. There are certain patent office invalidity challenges, such as European Patent Office (EPO) oppositions and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) post-grant reviews, which must be filed within nine months from grant. Therefore, agrochemical companies need to constantly monitor for competitor patents and patent publications or risk missing key challenge windows,” explained Jackman.