EPIPAGRI was proposed at the initiative of a working group* involving French public research organisations concerned by agriculture. This project, coordinated by INRA, aims to implement practical solutions :
- To reduce the fragmentation of European public sector IP portfolios in the agricultural biotechnologies sector,
- To ensure the broadest possible accessibility of the generic results of public research,
- To improve the technology transfer of outcomes from public research in agricultural biotechnology towards private companies, and particularly SMEs,
- To ease pre-marketing technological development and economic studies for new applications
- To reinforce the role played by public research organizations (PROs) in strengthening European competitiveness,
- To enhance the role of PROs in contributing to public welfare both inside and outside Europe, and particularly with respect to emerging countries.
EPIPAGRI is being funded for a period of two years, during which the following actions will be implemented:
- To establish an information exchange system concerning intellectual assets (including patents, emerging technologies and know-how) owned by EPIPAGRI members and other public research organizations.
- To evaluate this system through the building of patent bundles
- To be evaluated initially on a scientific basis
- And then from an economic point of view.
- To identify IP which restricts freedom to operate
- To detect emerging projects with high potential
- To propose patent bundles to private partners for non exclusive licensing.
- To propose consensual solutions for European organizations and institutions aimed at improving the management of public intellectual property in agricultural biotechnologies.
EPIPAGRI involves eleven European organisations representative of the sector: Biopolisz (Hungary), FLM (Portugal), GI GmBH (Germany), INRA and its subsidiary INRA Transfert, FIST subsidiary of the CNRS (France), IRTA (Spain), PBL (UK), SLU (Sweden) TEAGASC (Ireland), and VIB (Belgium). EPIPAGRI hopes to becomes the core of a future network open to all European public research organisations in the agricultural biotechnologies. EPIPAGRI will also be seeking to set up links with other international organisations such as PIPRA** in the USA or CAMBIA in Australia.
Project coordinator:
Bernard Teyssendier
INRA
Plant Biology Department
2 Place P. Viala
34060 Montpellier Cedex 01, France
Tel.: +334 99 61 27 12
bernard.teyssendier@ensam.inra.fr
* see the report dated June 17, 2004 from this working group (CIRAD, CNRS, IFREMER, INRA and IRD) led by Alain Weil: "Vers une mutualisation européenne de la propriété intellectuelle publique en biotechnologies à vocation agronomique" (Towards the European pooling of public sector intellectual property in the agricultural biotechnologies)
Report available on-line at: http://www.cirad.fr/upload/fr/communique/rap_final.pdf
** In the USA, the PIPRA initiative, involving 25 American universities and research institutes, was designed to manage intellectual property rights in the biotechnologies (mainly plants) for humanitarian purposes or for specific objectives of non-commercial interest. This programme, set up in July 2004, aims to collect data on patent applications, to disseminate information relative to technologies which could be used for humanitarian purposes, to help researchers locate technologies which are not protected by patents or exclusive licenses, and to advise universities on the conditions of granting licenses to private companies. It is actively looking for international partners.
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