The government wants to introduce patent rights for plants as part of an effort to promote the development of the nation’s biotechnology industry, but is facing opposition from some farmers, environmental protection activists and academics.
Wang Mei-hua (王美花), -director-general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Intellectual Property Office, recently said she was concerned the office’s draft amendment to the Patent Act (專利法) that would introduce plant patents may not pass the legislature this year.
The amendment was screened by the relevant legislative committees in April, but failed to proceed to the second reading because of disagreement over a major revision to the 24th article, which states that animals, plants and essential biological processes key to the reproduction of animals or plants are not entitled to the invention patent.
Wang said her office hopes the bill, which seeks to amend 108 articles, add 39 new ones and remove 15, will clear the legislature in the new session that will start in the middle of this month.
However, she said, after hearing the many opposing voices at a public hearing on the amendment last month, she fears it may not be passed soon.
At the Aug. 16 hearing, Warren Kuo (郭華仁), a professor of agronomy at the National Taiwan University who specializes in seed technology and biotech law, said that the introduction of patent rights for plants was unnecessary because plants are already included under the protection of variety rights.
If patent rights for plants are adopted, local farmers, as well as small and medium-sized seed -breeding companies, will not be able to use special plant traits in the research and development of new breeds without worrying they may be violating patent rights, Kuo said.
Individuals or small seed breeding companies will not be able to find unique genes in plants that determine plant traits, only big multinational enterprises will be able to so, Kuo said.
Adopting patent rights for plants will eventually lead to big companies’ monopolizing useful plant traits, which would prevent small breeding and research institutes, as well as farmers, from using them to create new varieties, Kuo said.
Taiwan Orchid Growers Association president Kao Chi-ching (高啟清) said the nation’s orchid industry would not be able to break into the international flora market without the help of the diverse research and development studies undertaken by small and medium-sized breeding companies in Taiwan.
He said adopting patent rights for plants would only benefit big businesses in the field of seed breeding, not the numerous small-scale breeders in Taiwan.
In response, Wang said that patent rights and variety rights are two different types of protections that can co-exist. Many countries, such as the US, Japan and some European nations, all have the two systems to ensure full protection of inventions involving plants, she said.
She added that variety rights only protect the appearance of a plant, such as the purple color of a species of flower, but patents are used to protect the breeding techniques, which means protection of researchers’ hard work, she said.
There are currently 70 biotech departments and institutes in universities nationwide and every year, about 10,000 graduates enter the biotech industry, Wang said.
Without plant patent rights, the country’s protection of intellectual property rights would be incomplete, she said. Furthermore, in the absence of a good protection system, foreign companies would not be willing to invest in the country’s biotech sector, she said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
RSS