Abstract
Intellectual property plays an important role in facilitating the process of taking innovative technology of microbiology to the marketplace and actual consumers. At the same time, protection of intellectual property contributes to enhancing competitiveness of technology-based enterprises, whether such enterprises are commercializing new or improved products or providing service on the basis of a new or improved microbiological knowledge. For most technology-based food enterprises, successful invention results of microbiology lead to a more efficient way of doing things or in a new commercially viable product; therefore protection and promotion of intellectual property rights is directly linked and contributes to success of microbiological research.
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Notes
- 1.
See definitions in Encyclopedia Britannica, http://britannica.com, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., 2009, Houghton Mifflin Company; World Food Programme, Breaking out of the Poverty Trap: How We Use Food Aid, electronically available at http://www.wfp.org/food_aid/introduction/index.asp?section=12&sub_section=1; P. Van den Bossche, The Law and Policy of the World Trade Organization: Text, Cases and Materials, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005; A. Smith (ed.), “Food Marketing”, in Oxford Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007; J. Jango-Cohen, The History Of Food, Twenty-First Century Books, 2005; R.A. Carpenter, C.E. Finley, Healthy Eating Every Day, Human Kinetics, 2005.
- 2.
The significance of food and its central role in our health and pleasures as well as in our economy, politics and culture is excellently presented by P. Atkins and I. Bowler, in their book entitled Food in Society: Economy, Culture, Geography, Hodder Arnold, Great Britain, 2001.
- 3.
One of the most remarkable books on the link between food and health is We Want Real Food by Graham Harvey, published by Constable – London in 2006. Consider also P. Caplan (ed.), “Food, Health and Identity”, London: Routledge, 1997; T. K. Marsden, “Food matters and the matter of food: towards a new food governance”, SociologiaRuralis, 2000, Vol. 40, pp. 20–29.
- 4.
WHO estimates that world-wide almost two million children die every year from diarrhoea, most of this caused by microbiologically contaminated food and water (WHO, 1999a). See also WTO Agreements and Public Health, A Joint Study of the WHO and the WTO Secretariat, 2002 and J. Rocourt, The present state of foodborne disease in OECD countries, WHO 2003.
- 5.
To prove that, see the WHO statistics (electronically available at http://www.who.int/topics/foodborne_diseases/en/): more than 9000 deaths in the USA, due to food- and waterborne diseases, are certainly a strong indicator that the food safety is an issue in developed part of the world, as well. Thus, it is not surprising that in highly industrialized countries, such as the USA, Australia and EU members, for example, percentage of people suffering from different issues of unsafe food has been reported to be up to 30%. The negative consequences of poor food safety are even more worrying in the developing world, where the WHO estimates that as much as 70 percent of the 1.8 million annual deaths from diarrhoea are linked to contaminated food. See also information on http://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/2011-foodborne-estimates.html, official web site of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- 6.
Foodborne Disease Outbreaks Guidelines and Control, 2008, WHO Publication.
- 7.
The text of the Berne Convention can be found at http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/text.jsp?file_id=283698.
- 8.
In order to secure a patent, a formal application is required, containing the title of the invention, sufficiently clear description of the general nature of the invention and at least one “claim” of novelty, distinguishing the invention from what is already known. Patent rights are usually enforced in courts with possibilities to stop the infringements or declaring patents invalid upon successful challenge by a third party.
- 9.
For more information consult the official site of the EPO https://www.epo.org/index.html
- 10.
PCT has currently 152 contracting parties; for more information consult the official site of the WIPO.
- 11.
See I. Kireeva and P.R. Vergano, “Geographical Indications and the Interface between Trade Mark Protection and Sui Generis Protection: The Example of China, Thailand and Vietnam”, International Trade Law and Regulation, Sweet & Maxwell, July 2006, Vol. 12, Issue 4, pp. 97–108.
- 12.
Often the products of specific places were more saleable than comparable products from other regions because of a particular quality trait associated to a given geographical area or site of production. This quality was a result of natural geographic advantages, such as climate, geology or food processing techniques peculiar to a region.
- 13.
This is particularly true in Europe, where substantial processed food markets and markets for alcoholic beverages are dependent upon the continued recognition of geographical indications.
- 14.
Before that date, several other international attempts of recognition and protection of appellations of origin had been made. Among them, one of the most relevant to the protection of geographical indications was the Lisbon Agreement of 1958, which, unfortunately, did not attract a lot of attention as only a few countries have ratified it.
- 15.
Article 22 of the TRIPS Agreement on the “Protection of geographical indications”.
- 16.
Article 23 of the TRIPS Agreement on the “Additional protection for geographical indications for wines and spirits”.
- 17.
Article 23.4 of the TRIPS Agreement provides that: “In order to facilitate the protection of geographical indications for wines, negotiations shall be undertaken in the Council for TRIPS concerning the establishment of a multilateral system of notification and registration of geographical indications for wines eligible for protection in those Members participating in the system”.
- 18.
WT/DS 174, 290, European Communities – Protection of Trademarks and Geographical Indications for Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs (EC – Trademarks/GIs).
- 19.
There are 66 contracting parties at present to the Hague Agreement; for more information consult http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/registration/hague/
- 20.
Ricketson, Sam., New Wine into Old Bottles: Technological Change and Intellectual Property Rights, ed. Drahos Peter “Intellectual Property”, second series, p. 389.
- 21.
Boldrin, M., and Levine, D.K., 2002, The Case Against Intellectual Property.
- 22.
L. J. Unnevehr, T. Roberts, and C. Custer, “New Pathogen Testing Technologies and the Market for Food Safety Information” AgBioForum Vol. 7, 2004, pp. 212–218; Reardon, T., C.P. Timmer, C.B. Barrett, J. Berdegue. 2003. “The Rise of Supermarkets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 85, 2005, pp. 1140–1146; K. Humphery, Shelf Life: Supermarkets and the Changing Cultures of Consumption, Cambridge University Press, 1998; A. Regmi (ed.), Changing Structure of Global Food Consumption and Trade, Market and Trade Economics Division, Economic Research Service, USDA, 30 May 2001.
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Kireeva, I. (2019). IPR Issues in Agricultural Microbiology. In: Singh, H., Keswani, C., Singh, S. (eds) Intellectual Property Issues in Microbiology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7466-1_7
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