Recent advances in genetic engineering nowallow the design of programmable biologicalartifacts. Such programming may include usageconstraints that will alter the balance ofownership and control for biotechnologyproducts. Similar changes have been analyzedin the context of digital content managementsystems, and while this previous work is usefulin analyzing issues related to biologicalprogramming, the latter technology presents new conceptual problems that require morecomprehensive evaluation of the interplaybetween law and technologically embeddedvalues. In particular, the ability to embedcontractual terms in technological artifactsnow requires a re-examination of (...) disclosure andconsent in transactions involving such artifacts. (shrink)

This book develops the term 'Sustainable Innovations' and defines it on the basis of plant variety innovations that, by their very nature, (i) permit the in situ conservation of agrobiodiversity and genetic variability in diverse geographic and climatic conditions, (ii) do not exclude any potential innovators from the process of innovation, and thereby (iii) ensure that both formal and informal innovations can continue to take place in the generations to come (in both the developed and developing world). The book studies (...) the Indian Plant Variety Protection Act, the UPOV Acts and associated agricultural policies from a legal, philosophical, historical and economic perspective with the aim of determining the means of promoting sustainable innovations in plant varieties and identifying laws, policies and practices that are currently acting as impediments to promoting the same. (shrink)