By Robert Tarvydas, James Gaisford, Jill Hobbs, William Kerr

Failure to enforce intellectual property rights in developing countries has become a major international issue. The most visible expression of this was the inclusion of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs) provision in the GATT Uruguay Round. However, developing countries have expressed concern regarding the patent protection of agricultural inputs, citing food security, anti-competitive behavior and environmental problems. The exact boundaries of intellectual property protection for biotechnology have yet to be determined. Even if domestic legislation provides protection, a question still arises whether governments will actively enforce intellectual property laws.

This paper develops a model which is sufficiently broad to examine cases where countries may choose not to extend intellectual property protection as well as cases where countries include protection for agricultural biotechnology in domestic intellectual property legislation but have a choice whether or not to enforce.

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