Geneva Rhetoric, National Reality: The Political Economy of Introducing Plant Breeders' Rights in Kenya

Figures & data

Table 1. The global IP complex in plants

	UPOV	CBD	ITPGR
Principal actors	Global North (inc. Australia, Canada, EU, USA); NGOs (inc. ASTA, ASSINSEL, CIOPORA)	Global South (inc. China, India, G77 and select African countries); NGOs (inc. Greenpeace, CIEL, WWF)	Global South (inc. Mexico, select Latin American and African countries, Caribbean countries, India) NGOs (inc. Via Campesina, GRAIN, ETC)
Primary regime principles	Promote an effective system of IP protection in plant varieties; encourage development of new plant varieties	Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; sovereignty over genetic resources; access and benefit-sharing arrangements	(Limited) common heritage (PGRs for food and agriculture treated as public goods); sustainability and Farmers' Rights
Response to TRIPS agenda	Initially concerned at loss of jurisdiction; keenly cooperative on promoting UPOV as ‘effective sui generis’ system for Article 27.3(b)	Accommodative acceptance of IPRs to secure treaty objectives; balancing act	Initially opposed to IPRs; accommodative acceptance of IPRs with securing a public domain and multilateral system of access and exchange
Principles, norms and rules in response to TRIPS	Sui generis system for protecting IPRs in plant varieties; possibilities for co-existence of patents and PBRs; optional exemption for re-using saved seeds; provisions for breeders’ exemption; opposed to disclosure of origin and common heritage	Sovereignty over genetic resources; sui generis system for protecting/rewarding biodiversity-related traditional knowledge; revising IP rules (e.g. disclosure of origin) to enable norms of prior informed consent and access and benefit sharing	Sovereignty over PGRs (in situ); Farmers’ Rights; no IPRs on PGRs in international seed banks (ex situ); multilateral system to facilitate access to PGRs of select food and feed crops
Kenya's membership	Acceded to 1978 Act in April 1999	Party to Convention since July 1994 and to the Protocol since September 2003	Acceded to Treaty in April 2003

Source: Helfer (2004) and author's additional inputs.

Note: ITPGR, International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources.

Helfer, L.R. (2004), ‘Regime Shifting: The TRIPS Agreement and New Dynamics of International Intellectual Property Lawmaking’, Yale Journal of International Law, 29 (1), pp. 1–83.

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