Study On Farmers' Rights In Intellectual Property Protection

The issue of farmers' rights mainly concern traditional plant genetic resources and related traditional knowledge. It is one of the intellectual property rights(IPR) contention between developed countries and developing countries. Developing countries put forward the concept of "farmers' rights" and request to share the benefit derived from the exploitation of traditional plant genetic resources and related traditional knowledge. They attempt to eliminate the unfairness generated by the intensification of IPR. The issue of farmers' rights reflects the benefit divarication as to IPR protection between developed countries and developing countries. It also challenges the existing system of IPR. There are many difficulties in implementing farmers' rights for two reasons. One is the benefit divarecation between developed countries and developing countries .The other is the infantility of farmers' rights theory. Farmers' rights should be looked as a kind of exclusive IPR rather than political rights or moral rights. The actual holders of farmers' rights include groups of farmers, local communities, tribes and so on. The governments of countries could take the rights and obligation as legal holders of farmers' rights. The object of farmers' rights should cover the traditional plant genetic resources and related traditional knowledge from both in situ and ex situ conditions. We can provide respective rights and obligations according to the difference of actual holders and legal holders of farmers' rights. In my opinion, farmers rights should mainly be treated as prior rights thus its' holders could share the benefit of the later patent or plant breeders' rights. I maintain that farmers' rights must be implemented though statutory provisions at international level.