Sowing and Cultivating the Seed of Diversity in Agri-Food: Intellectual Property Protection in Transnational and Comparative Perspective

This article combines intellectual property and comparative law insights to propose an evolutionary analysis of protection for seeds in the contemporary legal order. From a regime of commons for seeds, to plant variety protection to patents for genetically engineered plants, exclusive rights have been progressively introduced for innovators in the field of agriculture to provide incentives in a world of growing need for food and raw materials. Such evolution caused reduced common practices in agriculture, that implied the freedom to save and exchange seeds. Among other values, a potential loss of biodiversity is the consequence. Likewise, legal systems tend to converge towards certain models of protection for innovators, although regulatory competition can exert significant pressure on states to preserve alternative models and offer solutions that balance all the values at stake.