How should intellectual property protection for biological breeding be strengthened

Biological breeding is a technological innovation activity that uses modern biotechnology to breed new varieties of plants and animals, and is one of the strategic emerging industries spawned by modern biotechnology. Biological breeding is not only related to the future development of the biological industry and the new energy industry, but also concerns food security and national security. From 2011 to 2013, China issued three documents in three consecutive years focusing on seed industry security, responding to the crisis currently facing the development of the seed industry, fully demonstrating that the state's understanding of the importance of seed industry security has been continuously rising. At present, it is urgent to accelerate the implementation of the intellectual property protection strategy for biological breeding, promote seed industry technological innovation, and ensure national seed industry security.

Intellectual property protection is the fundamental means by which developed countries safeguard seed industry security. As a basic rule of international trade, intellectual property is increasingly becoming a strategic weapon in international trade competition and an important symbol of a country's international core competitiveness. In recent years, the contest over the world's biological resources has intensified, and developed countries have used intellectual property means to exercise control over the seed industry industrial chain and value chain globally, accelerating their occupation of the seed industry markets of developing countries and their plundering of interests, forming a monopoly pattern in biological breeding, and posing a serious threat to the seed industry security of developing countries, including China. Strengthening intellectual property protection for biological breeding and building a protective net and barrier for seed industry security is currently an important means for developed countries to safeguard their seed industry security. For example, developed countries such as the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands implement a "dual-track" overlapping protection of specialized laws and patent laws for new biological varieties; Italy, Hungary, New Zealand, and others implement specialized intellectual property legislative protection for new biological varieties. Relying on their biotechnological advantages, developed countries seek to enclose and monopolize international biological resources by strengthening intellectual property protection for biological breeding, shifting from controlling agricultural end products to controlling seeds, the source of agriculture, and racing to build their own core advantages in international biotechnology competition, laying a solid foundation for winning international competition.

Inadequate intellectual property protection has led to an increasingly evident seed industry security crisis in China. China's intellectual property protection for biological breeding started relatively late, and intellectual property provides insufficient incentives for independent innovation in the seed industry. Existing intellectual property protection for biological breeding is still at the stage of rough protection of new varieties, and a comprehensive intellectual property protection system for biological breeding covering everything from germplasm resources to the promotion of new varieties has not yet been established. In reality, there are still many legal gaps and institutional defects. China's inadequate intellectual property protection makes it difficult for the value of intellectual property to be fully manifested, leading to insufficient motivation for enterprises to participate in seed industry technological innovation. The serious disconnection between industry, academia, and research has led to China's lack of core technologies in biological breeding, relatively little accumulation of independent intellectual property, and weak first-mover capacity in seed industry technology and international competitive advantage. Inadequate intellectual property protection has led to counterfeit and falsely labeled seeds hitting the seed industry market, dampening enthusiasm for independent innovation in the seed industry, resulting in insufficient investment in technology research and development by domestic seed industry enterprises, few leading seed industry enterprises operating in an integrated manner of breeding, propagation, and promotion, and a lack of strong scientific and technological support and international core competitiveness for national seed industry enterprises. Inadequate intellectual property protection has also led to a serious outflow of China's germplasm resources. Relying on strong intellectual property protection, large foreign monopoly enterprises have entered China one after another and control many key areas. The seed industry crisis is drawing ever closer, further threatening national agricultural security. For example, after China's wild soybean germplasm resources were stolen by foreign institutions, intellectual property was applied for on new soybean varieties, creating the awkward situation that Chinese people must first pay to purchase intellectual property in order to plant their own seeds. At present, China's soybean seed, corn seed, flower, vegetable, and other seed industries are almost all penetrated by large foreign monopoly seed industry groups, which occupy core technological advantages and devour a large amount of China's seed industry interests. Against this background, China urgently needs to strengthen intellectual property protection for biological breeding.

The focus of intellectual property protection for biological breeding is to incentivize independent innovation in the seed industry. Innovation is the soul of a nation, and an important function of intellectual property is to incentivize and protect technological innovation. The primary task of China's intellectual property protection for biological breeding is to build a technological innovation system for biological breeding, incentivize and protect biological breeding technological innovation, promote the integration of seed industry research and development with production, and cultivate independent intellectual property and commercialization potential in the seed industry. At present, the weakness and crisis of China's seed industry lie in insufficient technological innovation, little independent intellectual property, and a lack of core competitiveness in international seed industry competition. Therefore, using intellectual property to incentivize independent innovation in the seed industry has become an urgent task. Safeguarding seed industry security has a public nature and is an important part of the national security strategy, requiring government efforts; at the same time, intellectual property in biological breeding is an intangible asset and must follow market mechanisms and laws. Therefore, to strengthen intellectual property protection for biological breeding and incentivize independent innovation in the seed industry, it is necessary to accelerate the organic connection between the government and the market and form a dynamic mechanism for intellectual property protection in biological breeding. It is necessary to strengthen the government's driving force and increase the government's policy support and basic research and development investment for intellectual property protection and innovation in biological breeding. It is necessary to give full play to the market's original driving force, optimize the allocation of biotechnology and resources, and stimulate the internal vitality of enterprises. At the same time, it is necessary to give play to farmers' subjective enthusiasm and enhance the supporting force for intellectual property protection and innovation in biological breeding.

Strengthening intellectual property protection for biological breeding requires a "three-pronged approach" of policy, law, and management. Intellectual property protection for biological breeding is a systematic project involving the interests of multiple parties such as the government, scientific research institutions, enterprises, and farmers. Therefore, to strengthen intellectual property protection for biological breeding and ensure national seed industry security, it is necessary to shift from mere seed industry security protection to enhancing comprehensive agricultural competitiveness, and from biotechnology support for biological breeding to strategic support for agricultural science and technology innovation. It is necessary to take the market as the orientation and enterprises as the main body, break international technological monopolies, stimulate the vitality of domestic breeding technological innovation, and establish a comprehensive safeguard system through a "three-pronged approach" of policy, law, and management. To this end, it is necessary to establish a comprehensive intellectual property protection system for biological breeding, especially to improve the policy system for the protection of related genetic resources and benefit-sharing, and strengthen administrative support; it is necessary to improve relevant legislation on biological breeding and strengthen the enforcement of intellectual property laws and judicial protection; it is necessary to strengthen innovation management in biological breeding, improve the management of international cooperation and exchange in biological breeding, strictly prevent the theft and loss of germplasm resources, and build a comprehensive intellectual property management and monitoring system for biological breeding.

Intellectual property protection for biological breeding is a war over international interests and sovereignty, and it must be elevated to the height of a national security strategy. It is necessary to effectively combine domestic intellectual property rules with international trade rules, accelerate the transformation of the agricultural development model, implement a strategy of integrating high-end factors, continuously raise the level of independent intellectual property in the seed industry, strengthen intellectual property protection for biological breeding, and ensure national seed industry security. At the same time, it is also necessary to prevent the alienation caused by excessive intellectual property protection for biological breeding and effectively protect farmers' rights and interests.