BIOTECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION, INTERNATIONAL LAW AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Abstract

The origin and development of modern biotechnology has initiated a new area in the scope of intellectual property law. Within the
organisms of international cooperation, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Organization, related governing documents, such as the Laws of Intellectual Property Related to Trade (ADPIC) and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) have been generated in the area of agriculture, dealing with the legalization concerning the private appropriation of germoplasma, largely determined by biotechnological businesses and transnational seed companies. The current debate on this topic, that involves in the spheres of morals as well as law, obscures the real conflict, which is the regulation of competition among these corporations regarding the control and the economic benefits resulting from scientific and technical discoveries in agriculture. Therefore, the overlapping of the international judicial framework results to be according with those proposals.