Agro-Environmental Sustainability and Intellectual Property Rights

The present book on Agro-Environmental Sustainability and Intellectual Property Rights examines the confronted challenges in agriculture and environment management with the introduction of intellectual property rights in agriculture by the World Trade Organization (WTO) under the framework of Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMRs) resulted in an unequal treatment to Indian sovereignty over natural resources. There is no denying of the fact that the WTO has the potential to bite deep into the material well-being of Indian agricultural sector. The whole saga around patenting of haldi (turmeric), basmati, neem, karela (bitter gourd), kalajira (blackcumin), and brinjal clearly demonstrate widespread bio-colonisation by the multinational companies (MNCs) sponsored by the developed countries. Over the past more than  two decades, there have been substantial changes in intellectual property rights regime at the international level, in particular in the WTO, WIPO and other international institutions have immediate impact on national legal intellectual property rights frameworks. The book critically analyses the various facets of the international intellectual property regime and its implications on national laws and policies related to agriculture, environment and intellectual property law in order to achieve the idea of sustainable development in the context of climate change and human rights discourse at international and national level. Under this backdrop the book also suggested some futuristic model law in order to govern the problem of agro-environmental sustainability by adopting the selected model of law according to their specific needs and conditions, which must addressed the rights of farmers, sustainable use of biological resources, prevention of bio-piracy, rights of the traditional community, fair and equitable benefit sharing and the realization of the basic human rights of the present and future generations.

ANIS AHMAD (b. 1974) presently serving as Assistant Professor, Department of Law, School for Legal Studies, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (A Central University) Lucknow. Before that he has worked as Lecture in Institute of Law and Research, Faridabad (Haryana) from 2002 to 2008. He did his Master Degree LL.M from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh and obtained Ph.D. Degree from Faculty of Law, M.D University, Rohtak, Haryana. His areas of interest are: Environmental Law, Agriculture Law, Intellectual Property Law and Jurisprudence. Dr. Ahmad has more than 12 years of teaching and research experience and published several research papers in reputed national and international journals. As a prolific writer and seminarian he participated in several national and international seminars and presented papers on various issues of law and socio-economic realities of the country. He has guided 21, LL.M Dissertations on various environmental and other issues. He is a member of the advisory board of Clean Up and Recycle for Environment (CURE) Jaipur (Rajasthan) a reputed NGOs working on E-waste.