The creation of private intellectual property rights for agri-food and life-science innovations in the past 20 years has opened the global research system to substantial private involvement. The development process is highly complex, as developers in the life-science field often require access to 15-30 different proprietary technologies to develop a single product. Even in the absence of opportunistic behaviour by firms, the logistics of assembling access and licenses to all these elements is a problem itself. More importantly, however, the strategies that companies use to protect their rights have in many cases created real barriers for new entry firms and impediments for both public and private research and development. Furthermore, markets for intellectual property are just beginning to emerge; negotiating contracts is extremely protracted and expensive while some technologies are not accessible through the marketplace. This uncertainty impedes both public and private development of new biotechnology products, especially for smaller crops and smaller research programs.
This theme examines the theoretical, regulatory and commercial IPM strategies adopted by industry, government and civil society in order to assess the efficacy of current governing systems and to identify new models or strategies for improving the economic and social outcomes.

One of the most pressing issues for many research programs is the "freedom to operate" in a world of overlapping and interwoven claims to intellectual property rights. Intellectual property rights are both de jure (e.g. patents, Plant Breeders' Rights, trademarks and trade secrets) and de facto (e.g. protected through contracts or via technical barriers such as hybrids). Developers face difficulties not just because of the legal hurdles of acquiring the rights to use proprietary technologies or materials, but also due to the practical challenge of being able to assemble practically and economically the skills and tools necessary to innovate.

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2007

Phillips PWB and CD Ryan. 2007. The Role of Clusters in Driving Innovation. In Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best Practices (eds. A Krattiger, RT Mahoney, L Nelsen, et al.). MIHR: Oxford, U.K., and PIPRA: Davis, U.S.A. Available online at www.ipHandbook.org.

Phillips PWB and CD Ryan. 2007. Building Research Clusters: Exploring Public Policy Options for Supporting Regional Innovation. In Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best Practices (eds. A Krattiger, RT Mahoney, L Nelsen, et al.). MIHR: Oxford, U.K., and PIPRA: Davis, U.S.A. Available online at www.ipHandbook.org.

2006

Gray, R., S. Malla and P. Phillips. 2006. Product innovation in the Canadian canola sector. Supply Chainr Mangement: An International Journal 11(1), 65-74. Download pdf

Coenen, L., J. Moodysson, C. Ryan, B. Asheim and P. Phillips. 2006. "Knowledge bases and spatial patterns of collaboration: comparing the pharma and agro-food bioregions Scania and Saskatoon," Industry and Innovation 13(4), 393-414. Download pdf
2005

Phillips, P. 2005. The Saskatchewan Economy. R. Ivanosko et al (eds.) The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan, pp. 273-276. Download pdf

2004
Smyth, S., P. Phillips, W. Kerr and G. Khachatourians. 2004. Regulating the Liabilities of Agricultural Biotechnology. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing, pp.210. Download pdf

Smyth, S., G. G Khachatourians and P. Phillips. 2004. The Liability from Regulating Gene Flow in Plant-made Pharmaceuticals. Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews, 21: 277-297. Download pdf

2003

Haghiri, M. and P. Phillips. 2003. The Impact of Globalization on Agricultural Biotechnology in Iran: A Model for Regional-Intellectual Property Rights, Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 2(1), pp. 27-53. Download pdf

Dierker, D. and P. Phillips. 2003. The Search for the Holy Grail? Maximizing Social Welfare under Canadian Biotechnology Patent Policy. IP Strategy Today No. 6-2003. pp. 45-62. Download pdf

Phillips, P. 2003. The challenge of creating, protecting and exploiting networked knowledge. Proceedings of the ICABR Meetings, Ravello, Italy, June 9-July 4.

Smyth, S. and P. Phillips. 2003. The liablities from regulating gene flow from pharmaceutical and transgenic plants. Proceedings of the ICABR Meetings, Ravello, Italy, June 9-July 4. Download pdf

2002

Phillips, P. and D. Dierker. 2002. Public good and private greed: Strategies for realizing public benefits from a privatized global agri-food research effort. Chapter 7 in Pardey, P.G. ed. The Future of Food: Biotechnology Markets and Policies in an International Setting. Washington D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute, pp. 129-148. Download pdf

Haghiri, M., and P. Phillips. Forthcoming. The impact of globalization on agricultural biotechnology in Asia: A model of regional - intellectual property rights. Proceedings of the Asia Pacific Economics and Business Conference, 2002, Sarawak, Malaysia, Oct 2-4.

Ryan, C. and P. Phillips. 2002. Industrial Innovation and Regional Competitiveness in the Agricultural Biotechnology Sector: A Comparative Analysis of Innovation Structures in North America, Europe and Australia. Download pdf

Dierker, D. and P. Phillips. 2002. The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker: Why agricultural biotechnology industry may differ from the general biotechnology industry. Selected paper at the American Agricultural Economics Association meetings, July 28-31. Download pdf

2001

Dierker, D. and P. Phillips. 2001. The Search for the Holy Grail? Freedom to Operate in Canadian Agricultural Biotechnology.Proceedings of the ICABR Meetings, Ravello, Italy, June. Download pdf

Phillips, P. 2001. New Models of Agrifood Innovation and Development. Science and Technology Program, Harvard. http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidbiotech/comments/

Phillips, P. and D. Dierker. 2001. Public Good and Private Greed: Strategies for Realizing Public Benefits from a Privatized Global Agri-Food Research Effort. In P. Pardey (ed.), Title NA, IFPRI. Download pdf

Phillips, P. and G.G. Khachatourians. 2001. The Biotechnology Revolution in Global Agriculture: Invention, Innovation and Investment in the Canola Sector. CABI

Stovin, D. and P. Phillips. 2001. Establishing Effective Intellectual Property Rights and REducing Barriers to Entry in Canadian Agricultural Biotechnology Research. In V. Santanielle, et al. (eds.), Title NA, CAB International. Download pdf

2000

Kuntz, G. and P. Phillips. 2000. Transaction Costs and HT Canola: An Empirical Assessment.

Perillat, B. and P. Phillips. 2000. Farmer Returns from HT Canola: A Survey.

Phillips, P. 2000. Genetically Modified Agriculture: Lessons from Canola. (Presentation to the Conference on 'Biotechnology and the Public Interest: Prospects of Biotechnology in the Developing and Developed World', University of California at Berkeley, April 28.) Download pdf

Phillips, P. 2000. Intellectual Property Rights and Public Research in Canada in V. Santaniello et al. (eds.) Agriculture and Intellectual Property Rights: Economic Institutional and Implementation Issues in Biotechnology. CAB International. Download pdf

Phillips, P. and J. Gustafson. 2000. Patent Strategies in the Biotechnology Industry and Implications for Technology Diffusion (Proceedings of the ICABR Conference, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", August.)
Download pdf

Stovin, D. and P. Phillips. 2000. Establishing Effective Intellectual Property Rights and REducing Barriers to Entry in Canadian Agricultural Biotechnology Research. Proceedings of the ICABR Conference, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", August, Ravello, Italy. Download pdf

1999

Gray, R., S. Malla and P. Phillips. The Public and Not-For-Profit Sectors in a Biotechnology-Based, Privatizing World: The Canola Case (Proceedings of the NE-165 Conference: "Transitions in Agbiotech: Economics of Strategy and Policy" in Washington, D.C., June 24-5, 1999). Download pdf

Gray, R., S. Malla and P. Phillips. Gains to Yield Increasing Research in the Evolving Canadian Canola Research Industry (Proceedings of the ICABR conference on "The Shape of the Coming, Agricultural Biotechnology Transformation: Strategic Investment and Policy Approaches from an Economic Perspective," University of Rome "Tor Vergata", June 17-19, 1999). Download pdf

Phillips, P. Regional Systems of Innovation as a Modern R&D Entrepot: The Case of the Saskatoon Biotechnology Cluster in J. Chrisman et al. (eds.), Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Family Business and Economic Development: A Western Canadian Perspective, University of Calgary Press (forthcoming). Download pdf

Phillips, P. and D. Stovin. The Economics of Intellectual Property Rights in the Agricultural Biotechnology Sector in M. Qaim et al. (eds.), Agricultural Biotechnology in Developing Countries: Towards Optimizing the Benefits of the Poor, Kluwer Academic Publishers (forthcoming). Bonn, Germany, November 15-16, 1999. Download pdf http://www.zef.de/zef_englisch/f_veranstalt_biotech.htm

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2006-2010: Principal Investigator, GE3LS Study on intellectual property and knowledge translation, Project 1.2, which addresses the the role of public-private partnerships in knowledge creation and translation in the area of genomics and health systems

2003-07: Network Investigator, Advanced Foods and Materials Network, National Centre of Excellence. Web Site

2003-06: Investigator, SSHRC MCRI on Modeling Agricultural Biotechnology Intellectual Property Protection.

2001-2005: Principal Investigator, GE3LS Study on Creating, Managing and Commercially Exploiting Intellectual Property, which examines the impact and management of intellectual property. In the first instance, the project examined the current legal system for intellectual property rights and considered legislative or contractual mechanisms to create incentives but minimize the monopolistic exploitation of resulting innovation. Second, it examined the role of formal and informal research networks in facilitating access to proprietary and exclusive knowledge and their impacts on the commercialization of resulting research efforts. Finally, the project addressed the economics and strategies of firms as they attempt to exploit their intellectual property.

GE3LS Web Site                                      
Genome Alberta Web Site
Genome Prairie Web Site

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Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee (Web Site)

E. Richard Gold, Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy
Faculty of Law, McGill University (Web Page)

Anatole F Krattiger, Professor, School of Life Sciences
Arizona State University (Web Page)

David Castle, Professor, Department of Philosophy, College of Arts
University of Guelph (Web Page)

Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, Professor, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, and Research Director, Health Law Institute, University of Alberta(Web Page)

Julian Kinderlerer, Assistant Director of the Sheffield Institute of Biotechnological Law and Ethics, University of Sheffield (Web Page)

Stuart Smyth, Research Associate for GE3LS Projects, University of Saskatchewan

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National Research Council (NRC)

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)

International Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology Research (ICABR)

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

CIPO Patent Search Engine

World Trade Organization and IPRs

AgWest Bio Inc.

Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)

NRC Plant Biotechnology Institute (PBI)