Accessing other people’s technology for non–profit research

As patents and other forms of intellectual property become more pervasive in the next generation of biotechnologies, designing policies and practices to ensure sufficient freedom to operate (i.e., the ability to practice or use an innovation) will be crucial for non–profit research agencies, especially those intent on developing technologies destined for commercial release. Are non–profit organisations exempt from intellectual property claims? What constitutes infringement of a patent? How does a non–profit establish its freedom to operate? We address these issues in this paper and evaluate various options for accessing other people’s technologies. Options include cross–licensing agreements, research–only or cost–free licences, market segmentation strategies, mergers or joint ventures, and patent pooling or clearinghouse mechanisms. Responding creatively to the new intellectual property environment will have far reaching consequences for the future of non–profit research.     

地方专利技术展示交易平台存在的问题与解决思路

地方专利展示交易平台当前普遍存在基础技术资源质量不高、供给推动型模式与市场脱节、交易方式单调、专业中介服务机构服务水平低下、缺乏对外交流与联系、地方特色不明显等问题。借鉴英国BTG的成功经验,平台的未来发展策略应当以提升技术产品质量和服务质量为基础,积极推动市场化运作改革,通过创新交易方式和服务手段促进服务的全方位化,同时加强专利经纪人队伍培养,根据本地区产业优势努力打造平台特色。     

基于专利的全球秸秆利用技术发展态势分析

目的 通过专利分析揭示全球秸秆利用技术的研发现状与态势,为中国秸秆产业创新技术发展提供情报支撑。方法 文章利用Derwent Innovation（DI）、德温特数据分析软件（Derwent Data Analyzer,DDA）、incoPat等专业分析工具和平台,对申请年截止日期为2020年的全球秸秆利用专利申请趋势、专利布局、重要申请人、技术发展态势等内容进行深入分析。结果 （1）截止2020年,中国秸秆利用发明专利数量为5.36万件,占全球的76.80%,居第一。美国希乐克公司专利申请量居首位,中国科学院、中国农业科学院分列第二、第三位。中国专利申请呈“小而散”的特点。（2）中国秸秆利用专利布局主要在国内,涵盖了“五料化”（肥料化、饲料化、燃料化、基料化、原料化）利用各领域,且以秸秆肥料化利用专利为主。（3）对全球排名前50申请人类型分析表明,国外申请人以企业为主,中国申请人类型则以高校和研究机构为主。（4）中国秸秆利用专利授权率20.49%,转让与许可专利比例仅为5.56%,与发达国家差距仍较大（美国73.67%）。结论 中国是秸秆利用专利申请大国,但与发达国家相比,在专利质量、核心专利以及专利转化方面仍存在高价值专利少、专利转化水平低等一些问题,因此建议：（1）提高企业的研发水平,促进校企合作。（2）密切关注国际核心关键技术研发动态,增加自身核心专利或高影响力专利的数量。（3）发挥中国在秸秆肥料与秸秆建筑材料等利用技术方向的专利优势,加速专利向产业转化。     

The Evolving Structure of Chinese R&D Funding and its Implications for the Productivity of Agricultural Biotechnology Research

China’s research and development (R&D) policy has changed considerably over recent decades, and great changes occurred in 2006 when the main programme objective of China’s R&D changed from the 863 Programme and 973 Programme to the National Science and Technology Major Project. One topic that has drawn extensive attention is whether the investment reform improved R&D productivity in China. Using a unique panel dataset from 160 universities, this paper examines the effect of the investment reform on productivity improvement in China’s agricultural biotechnology sector. We use a panel count data model with a dynamic feedback mechanism to model the knowledge production process. Strong evidence indicates that the investment reform greatly contributes to knowledge output production in China’s agricultural biotechnology sector. We also find that the input quality is more important than the absolute quantity; human research capacity exhibits the greatest contribution to the output of patents; past knowledge accumulation helps produce more patents; and entry barriers to patent production exist in China’s agricultural biotechnology sector. Moreover, the patent explosion in China may have been largely caused by improvements in the human capital input quality.     

我国渔业知识产权存在的问题与对策研究

本文首先提出了渔业知识产权的概念、分类,并分析了渔业知识产权的意义,然后指出我国渔业知识产权的现状不容乐观,数量偏少,质量不高,一些渔业知识产权还被外国主体拥有。为改变这种局面,促进渔业的转型升级与良性发展,我国渔业应当贯彻实施国家知识产权战略,大力发展渔业知识产权。应采取的措施包括促进渔业知识产权的创造和运用,加强渔业知识产权的保护,加强渔业知识产权管理。     

Trends in University Ag-Biotech Patent Production

This work exploits information on U.S. patents to identify trends in university ag-biotech patenting and citation performance. It sets forth some key issues concerning patterns of university ag-biotech patenting and then provides an empirical analysis of the evolving trends. Land grant universities account for most U.S. ag-biotech patents. The data show a path-dependent innovation pattern, in which there also seems to be a culture of patenting that develops at certain universities. Evidence shows that ag-biotech patents are more cited than the average university patent. Inequalities across land grant universities are also evident in the production of ag-biotech patents, although perhaps not to a much greater degree than underlying inequalities in funding and research qualities. The paper closes by considering how the evidence offered might be used to advance the public discussion regarding trends in agricultural biotechnology research in the United States.     

Intellectual Property Rights: Implications for the Canola Sector and Publicly Funded Research1

This paper reviews various vehicles to protect intellectual property in Canada including Plant Breeders'Rights. The experience to date following implementation of the Canadian Plant Breeders'Rights Act indicates that for crop agriculture, the majority of plant protection certificates were granted to canola, followed by potato and soybean. Fewer protection certificates were granted to wheat, barley, apples and berries. Several canola protection certificates consisted of hybrid varieties that were developed by private breeders. Ten private companies accounted for most of the plant protection certificates issued for canola. For canola patents, over 200 were filed in Canada during the 1986–97 period. Biotechnology patents numbered slightly over 100, with most of them comprising new plants, hybrid processes, nucleotide sequences, polypeptides, plant promoters, regulators and methods to produce improved fatty acid profiles. A large proportion of patent owners were transnational corporations or joint venture operations that controlled the distribution of identity preserved products from seed to end user. The paper highlights how publicly funded research has responded to greater investments in private plant breeding and suggests what policies may be necessary to ensure that maximum public benefits are achieved as a result of strengthened intellectual property right protection. L'auteur passe en revue les divers véhicules de protection de la propriété intellectuelle au Canada, y compris la Loi sur la protection des obtentions végétales. À la suite de la mise en application de cette loi au Canada, la majorité des certificats de protection des obtentions végétales sont allés au colza canola, suivi, par ordre d'importance, par la pomme de terre et le soja. Un plus petit nombre ont été accordés au blé et à l'orge, aupommier et à divers petits fruits. Plusieurs des certificats de protection accordés au canola portaient sur des variétés hybrides créés par des sélectionneurs privés. Dix sociétés privées, en effet, comptaient pour la plupart des certificats de protection émis pour le colza canola. Sur les brevets concernant le colza canola, au‐delà de 200 demandes étaient déposées au Canada durant lapériode 1986–1997. Les brevets de biotechnologie se chiffraient par plus de 100, la plupart portant sur des plantes nouvelles, sur desprocessus d'hybridation, des séquences de nucléotides, des polypeptides, des stimulateurs et des régulateurs de croissance ainsi que sur des méthodes visant à obtenir des profils acidolipidiques améliorés dans les cultures oléagineuses. Une grande proportion des détenteurs de brevets sont des sociétés multinationales ou des entreprises en co‐propriété qui contrôlent la distribution des produits dont l'identité est protégée dans toute la chaîne d'utilisation, de la semence à l'usager ultime. L'article montre comment la recherche financée par les fonds publics a réagi à l'accroissement des activités du secteur privé dans le domaine de la phytosélection et propose les mesures politiques qui pourraient devenir nécessaires pour que le secteur public puisse tirer le maximum d'avantages du renforcement de la protection des droits de propriété intellectuelle.     

龙头企业、专利投入与农业产业高质量发展研究

[目的]中共十九大报告提出实施乡村振兴战略,对中国粮食产业高质量发展和农业供给侧结构性改革有了进一步要求。小麦作为中国主要粮食作物之一,小麦产业是中国农业产业的代表性产业之一,其发展对中国粮食安全具有重要意义。以小麦产业为例,探究农业科技创新中龙头企业、专利投入与中国小麦产业发展的关系。[方法]文章基于2015—2018年的短面板数据,利用耦合协调度模型测算中国31省(市、自治区)的小麦产质量耦合协调度,解析中国小麦产业耦合协调发展的实际情况,并运用工具变量Tobit方法实证分析中国小麦产质量耦合协调度的影响因素。[结果]中国小麦产质量耦合协调度总体偏低。龙头企业数量、农业基础设施对小麦产质量耦合协调度产生显著的正向影响,地区小麦专利数量在龙头企业对小麦产业的影响中具有正向调节作用。[结论](1)中国小麦产质量耦合协调度总体上还处于较低水平;(2)在小麦产质量耦合协调度回归模型中,粮食播种面积是一个有效的工具变量,它在很大程度上决定了龙头企业选址;(3)小麦专利数量对小麦产质量耦合协调具有直接促进作用,但是这种作用不显著;(4)地区小麦专利的调节效应增强了龙头企业与小麦产质量耦合协调度的影响。     

Science Policy and Agricultural Biotechnology in Canada

This paper examines Canadian science and technology (S&T) policies in the 1990s and the growth of the agriculture biotechnology sector. Drawing from several different data sources, we show that advances in biotechnology have made a substantive contribution to the agri-food landscape as evident by the growth in biotechnology companies, as well as the number of approved genetically modified field trials and canola biotechnology patents issued to inventors. We also show that Canadian inventors do not appear to have harvested a substantive number of enabling canola biotechnology patents as compared to U.S. and European inventors.     

湖南省农业“走出去”的机遇与对策研究

农业"走出去"是国家"走出去"战略的重要部分,也是构建农业国际国内良性双循环体系的现实路径。湖南省是一个农业大省,承担着粮食安全的重任,在国家农业"走出去"的大背景下,必须抓住机遇,充分利用国外的优质农业资源和相对较低的成本优势,实施走出去战略。为此,应正确定位走出去的目标,从宏观上制定战略规划,打造精准化的信息服务平台,积极创办境外产业园区,有效运用知识产权,提供人才支持等方面系统谋划湖南省农业"走出去"的对策。     

探析地勘单位知识管理

在知识经济时代,地勘单位作为知识密集型单位,应围绕其核心资源——知识资本,适时进行知识管理,建立知识管理战略,努力形成新的竞争优势,实现自身的快速发展。文章阐述了知识管理的定义、必要性、功能,并结合实际探讨了地勘单位知识管理的核心问题、实施要素及保障措施,强调健康的机制是地勘单位知识资源的重要部分,是地勘单位持续生存和发展的最基本条件。     

Explaining the Decline in UK Agricultural Productivity Growth

This paper reports the results of a study of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in UK agriculture, from 1953‐2000. It shows that prior to 1984 TFP grew at 1.68% per annum and after that date at only 0.26%. International comparisons show that the UK has fallen far behind the leading EU countries. Yield growth declined even more and only labour productivity continues to grow rapidly. In part, the result is due to better data that incorporates more quality adjustment, but the real decline can be explained mainly by cuts in R&D, less patents, less growth in farm size and the demise of public extension. There are other negative factors, which have not been quantified, including asset fixity, convergence and ozone pollution, and a background argument that recent growth rates cannot be sustained.     

Synergies or Trade-Offs in University Life Sciences Research

Major legislative, legal, and technological changes paved the way for a period of remarkable growth in the patenting of life science research by U.S. universities in the 1980s and 1990s. Using a multiple-output cost framework and two decades of panel data on ninety-six universities, this article examines whether economies of scope and/or scale are present in university production of three major life science research outputs: journal articles, patents, and doctorates. The results show strong evidence of economies of scale in life science research production with mixed evidence of economies of scope between articles and patents.     

以知识产权为核心的商业模式创新——以华东有色地质调查公司为例

知识产权在地勘单位的产业链中有举足轻重的作用,而如何构建适合地勘单位的以知识产权为核心的商业模式则成为影响其发展的关键途径。华东有色地质调查公司基于知识产权的商业模式与新兴策略包括:技术更新推动商业模式更新;知识产权商业化推动商业模式更新;知识产权资本化提升技术成果价值。在创新模式时,企业要把握好顾客需求及企业关键资源和能力,对企业的技术创新、技术成果专利化、知识产权商业化和知识产权资本化四个方面促进商业模式的创新和价值实现,以市场为导向,实现知识产权的效益最大化,提高企业竞争力。     

Demographic pressure and the Irish famine: Malthus after Mokyr

"This paper presents a fresh analysis of demographic pressure in pre-Famine Ireland. The crucial issue is one of measurement. Population pressure is taken as the ratio of population to non-reproducible natural resources, that is, land." The author develops a measure of land quality that is used to test the Malthusian hypothesis. "The central finding of this paper may be stated quite simply: when proper account is given to the measurement of land quality and demographic pressure, then the Malthusian hypothesis that income per capita decreases with population pressure is not rejected by the evidence of pre-Famine Ireland."     

Evolving Supply Chains in the Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods Industry

The rapid growth of the nutraceutical and functional foods industry in recent years has necessitated the development of new supply chain relationships. These supply chains are interesting because of the uncertain regulatory, technological and market environment in which they have evolved. Challenges include concentration in upstream input supply and downstream manufacturing sectors, intellectual property rights protection, asset specific investments in an uncertain market environment, and establishing credible quality signals for credence attributes in an era of regulatory uncertainty and consumer scepticism.     

Plant Variety Protection, Innovation, and Transferability: Some Empirical Evidence

Under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, all member-countries of the World Trade Organization are required to provide an " effective" system of plant variety protection within a specific time frame. In many developing countries, this has led to a divisive debate about the fundamental desirability of extending intellectual property rights to agriculture. Empirical studies on the economic impacts of plant variety protection, especially its ability to generate large private sector investments in plant breeding and to facilitate the transfer of technology, have been very limited. This paper examines two aspects of the international experience of plant variety protection: ( a ) the relationship between legislation, research, and development expenditures and plant variety protection grants, i.e., the innovation effect and ( b ) the role of plant variety protection in facilitating the flow of varieties across countries, i.e., the transferability effect.     

Do stronger intellectual property rights promote seed exchange: evidence from U.S. seed exports?

With increased private investment in crop breeding research in the developed world, intellectual property rights have gained importance in seed sector. Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)‐plus provisions included in recent free trade agreements between the developed and developing countries show a tendency of the developed world to impose their high standards for protection of plant intellectual property on the developing world. While stronger intellectual property rights can increase international exchange in seed, market power effect can lead to a reduction in exports of seed to foreign markets. This article estimates the impact of intellectual property rights on U.S. seed exports. The estimation is performed at a crop level using Heckman selection model. The results reveal that the impact of intellectual property rights varies across different types of crops—open‐pollinated, genetically modified, and hybrid crops. While TRIPS provisions are important to facilitate transfer of genetically modified crops, they play a minor role for open‐pollinated and hybrid crops. The results also show that plant breeders’ rights envisioned by the UPOV system can be important to promote seed exchange when proper mechanisms are put in place to enforce these rights.     

农用地分等与耕地地力评价成果差异性及原因分析——以辽宁省法库县为例

[目的]我国现行耕地质量评价体系有国土资源部的《农用地分等》和农业部的《耕地地力评价》,因两种耕地质量评价实施部门的不同,在评价体系的建立、评价过程的开展和评价成果的应用都不尽统一,进而造成两种耕地质量评价成果在国家土地管理和指导农业生产工作上互不链接。[方法]为了探寻两种耕地质量评价成果差异性的具体表现及其形成原因,研究将辽宁省法库县作为研究区域,以国土部门和农业部门耕地质量评价的已有数据和图件成果为研究对象,运用数据对比分析法和GIS叠加分析法探寻两者在数量关系和空间分布上的差异。[结果]两种耕地质量评价成果在同宗耕地质量评价结果表达的不一致以及优劣耕地位置分布上的重合度低。[结论]两种耕地质量评价成果的"等""级"差异的原因:农用地分等与耕地地力评价成果在确定评价工作目标、指标体系和评价数据来源上均不统一、不同步。     

科技业绩评估体系初探

科技业绩是衡量一个单位、一个部门和每一位科技工作者学术成就和学术水平的主要依据。本文根据科技业绩评估的客观要求 ,以客观、公正和正确以及有利于引导广大科技工作者多出高水平的科技成果为原则 ,从承担和完成的科研任务 ,取得的研究成果以及人才培养、队伍建设和管理水平等方面探讨了量化的科技业绩评估体系。