São Paulo – On the 19th and 20th this month, Jordan is going to host an international conference on intellectual property in agriculture. The meeting is part of the schedule of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (Upov) and Brazil is going to be represented by diplomats from its local embassy, according to the Brazilian foreign office (Itamaraty).
Information about the conference is going to be passed on to the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply and to the Itamaraty by the representatives of the embassy. Brazil is greatly interested in the subject, given the fact that the main topic of the meeting will be intellectual property of cultivars, an area in which the country is highly developed.
The 4th International Conference on Intellectual Property Rights in Agriculture is going feature lecturers from Germany, Syria and Egypt. Entitled "Challenges and Opportunities," the meeting is going to discuss recovery of investment in agricultural innovation, the role of scientific conventions in the development of agriculture, animal husbandry and patents.
Another issue to be tackled will be protection for veterinary industry products and for the agricultural industry as a whole, as well as the relation between the trade of goods and property rights. The German Peter Lange, a global authority in the field, is going to give three lectures on topics such as innovation, return on investment and the relation between intellectual property and trade.
Other speakers at the meeting will be Nádia Haider, of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the Atomic Energy Commission of Syria, and Ismail Abd Alhameed, of the Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute of Egypt. The conference is organised in Jordan by the Technical Consultancy Centre and the Agricultural Materials Traders and Producers Association, with support from the local Ministry of Agriculture.
According to the Website of the meeting, Jordan has keen interest in the subject due to its agricultural industry, which consists mainly of pesticide, fertiliser and veterinary medication manufacturing. The conference is going to be attended by representatives of governments, associations and universities, companies and organisations in the agricultural and intellectual property rights industries from various countries.
Jordan has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$ 19.12 billion. Out of that total, 3.6% is generated by agriculture, 80% by the services sector and the remainder by industry. In the agriculture and animal husbandry industry, the Arab country produces fruit, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, chicken, dairy products and has sheep herds.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
