Intellectual property and innovation in agriculture and health

Abstract

Intellectual property has come to assume an ever more important role in modern societies, whose development is associated with technological progress and the creative and entrepreneurial capacity of individuals and businesses. The present and future vector of development is innovation in all its dimensions – including the reinvention of the life styles of wealthy societies whose expansion is clearly unsustainable. In this sense, the present work’s purpose is to demonstrate that Brazil has created an institutional brand suitable for the intellectual property protection, however, that brand is only one condition, in some necessary sectors, but not enough, to promote innovation. It needs, more than appropriate rules, to develop the capacity to innovate and create an innovation friendly environment. Intellectual property is only one, without doubt important, element of this complex system. It has taken agriculture to illustrate how intellectual property needs to be followed up by investments in human resources, local training, business demand, private-public interaction, in order to yield fruit and promote the country’s development.