Abstract
Application of the open source concept to seeds has a promising future. It reverses the logic of the intellectual property system with a renewable stock of open source material kept outside the exclusive intellectual property realm. Legal defensibility may currently be uncertain, but as open source builds a critical mass of practitioners and supporters, wider social legitimacy could strengthen the legal power. Future extension to other subject matter and settings is discussed on the basis of lessons learnt from current open source seed implementation experience in the US, Europe and Africa.
Highlights
Plant breeding research incentives are driven by a combination of two forms of intellectual property rights—plant variety protection and patents
Application of the open source concept to seeds has a promising future. It reverses the logic of the intellectual property system with a renewable stock of open source material kept outside the exclusive intellectual property realm
Legal defensibility may currently be uncertain, but as open source builds a critical mass of practitioners and supporters, wider social legitimacy could strengthen the legal power
Summary
Plant breeding research incentives are driven by a combination of two forms of intellectual property rights—plant variety protection and patents. This Perspective builds on the findings of the Open Source for Seeds (OSS) and Digital Sequence Information: Practical Experiences with OSS Implementation workshop (2017, CIRAD, Montpellier, France). Most open source initiatives do not include genetically engineered seeds, not because these varieties lack novelty or authority to pledge or license the varieties, but because of strong existing sociotechnical lock-ins with industrial food systems.
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