Intellectual property right and farmer protection in accessing genetic resources

Abstract

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the field of agriculture are regulated under the Patent Law, the Plant Breeder's Right Act and the Plant Cultivation System Act. The decision Number 99/PUU-X/2012 of the Constitution Court granted the right of farmers to access genetic resources (GR). The study aims to assert an application relevance of the law on the events in concreto complying with the provisions of law or contract. This is normative law research. This study revealed that if the Plant Breeder's Right Act and the Patent Act are linked to access to GR, they are not adequately regulated of how fair its benefit-sharing from the use of genetic resources, especially to local communities or farmer which had traditional knowledge (TK). The benefits of IPR are, a form of legal protection against the TK of the population over local varieties, it can utilize GR, and as conservation. IPR has progressively been incorporated into agriculture, namely Law Number 4/2006 concerning the Ratification of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) and Law Number 11/2013 on the approval of the Nagoya Protocol on access to GR and the fair and equitable benefit-sharing arising from their utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Based on this, it is essential to consider equal and balancing protection between breeder rights and farmer rights.