INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS REGIME VIS-A-VIS FOOD SECURITY- IRONING OUT THE CREASES

Abstract One of the most prodigious issues raised by current debates on intellectual property rights particularly in the context of their influence on developing nations are the aftermath of the legislation protecting such rights on food security. The author strongly feels that indentifying policy, economic and legal linkages between food security as a goal on one hand and intellectual property rights (IPRs) as an instrument to promote and enhance human creativity and overall social well-being at the other, is not a an easy task, but the connections do exist. Food security has always been a part of the basic human right to food, broadly defined as timely access to sufficient and nutritious food. It is inextricably linked to the right to health and further linked to intellectual property (IP) inasmuch as plant variety protection (PVP; also known as plant breeders’ rights) and patents, as applied to genetic resources, biodiversity components and biotechnological processes, may be limiting the possibilities of cultivators to freely grow certain crops, and of people to consume resulting agricultural products. This article aims to identify some of the connections and linkages between food security and Intellectual Property (IP), including but not limited to how the right to food as a human right may become affected through policy and legal restrictions and limitations imposed by the very nature of Intellectual Property. The author further desires to indentify economics, legal linkages and policy b