What this Landscape is about
This landscape will provide an overview of some important aspects of the intellectual property claims covering the Arabidopsis genome, which many in the biological sciences consider to be a public good, a model system that enables critical insights into many of the important pathways of crops, weeds and other plants. In particular, we investigated "bulk sequence claims", patent applications that attempt to claim 100 or more Arabidopsis sequences, and found a large number of such patent applications by Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow, Dupont, Bayer, and BASF and their subsidiaries and researchers who work with these companies under exclusive contracts.
What this Landscape is NOT about
This landscape is not intended to provide a legal opinion about freedom to operate using Arabidopsis sequences. The nature of patenting systems worldwide means that new patents and patent applications may appear at any time. Similarly, patents may lapse or patent applications may expire or be replaced by new applications. During the course of preparation of this landscape in early 2007, a series of new publications appeared, providing information for the first time on applications encumbering thousands of sequences, filed up to seven years earlier. This provided a firm reminder that it is not possible to take for granted that if a topic is not readily found in a search of published patents and patent applications, there is freedom to operate! So, although we have tried to give the best coverage of the intellectual property surrounding Arabidopsis sequences, this landscape should not be viewed as a comprehensive coverage of the subject.
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