ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses quantitatively the magnitude of private sector agricultural inventions throughout the world. It reviews several types of legal instruments used to protect inventions in both developed and developing countries. The chapter summarizes the principal international agreements that govern the protection of intellectual property between countries. It examines the protection offered to representative agricultural inventions by the individual legal systems of a large number of developing countries. The chapter presents the available data on private sector research and development and patenting in agriculture. It offers a brief discussion of alternatives available to developing countries to encourage more invention. The chapter argues that the institutional development of legal systems in the developing countries has been very slow and lacking in imagination. It concludes that agricultural invention, despite this limited institutional development, is indeed an important impetus to the growth process of developing countries.
