UK: Genetic Patents

United Kingdom
24/11/1999
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Antitrust lawsuits against life science companies are to be launched later this year in up to 30 countries. The unprecedented lawsuits will claim that the companies are exploiting bioengineering techniques to increase market share in agriculture. The lawsuits should throw fresh light on competition policy in sectors where a company’s market share is linked to its intellectual property. Unlike conventional markets, GM crops are patented, with seeds leased to farmers on an annual basis. These patent rights are fiercely protected: in the US, farmers have to give a legally binding undertaking that they will not save or replant the seeds. Campaigners against this practice claim that this control of the market gives the life science companies, particularly in the developing world, too much power. The action is being brought jointly by the Foundation on Economic Trends and the US-based National Family Farm Coalition, together with individual farmers from across the world. The outcome will have global implications for the biotechnology sector and all industries linked to it.
(The Financial Times, 13 September 1999)

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