Terminator Technology'-- A Technological Fix for an IP Problem?

The evolution of the legal regime under which the development of plant varieties has secured prolection as a category of intellectual property prolection has been discussed elsewhere. 1 The key feature of this evolution was a manifest tension between the desire of seed producers tu protect their innovations and public concerns about the strategic implications of the privatisation of agriculture. The compromise reached in the US 'Plant Patent Act' (Townsend-Parnell Act of 1930)2, was the exclusion of tuber-propagated plants to prevent monopolies in basic foodstuffs such as potatoes.3 In the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) the public interest was sought to be protected by a 'farmer's privilege' under which farmers were permitted to save and exchange seeds with other farmers and by a research exception which permitted the use of protected varieties for the purpose of developing new varieties.