Intellectual Property Rights Regimes in the Plant Breeding Sector:

This study explores how different IPR regimes, specifically the patent approach and the Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) approach, affect market structure and consumer satisfaction in the plant breeding sector. It does so by developing a Monte Carlo simulation model of sequential and cumulative innovation. The results show that under a patent system, the industry under consideration has some monopolistic tendencies, whereas under a PBR approach such monopolistic tendencies are observed to a significantly lesser extent. Also, consumer satisfaction is higher under a PBR approach.