PATENTING LIFE-FORMS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND GLOBAL ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE PROSPECT FOR AFRICA (Published)
As development in the world of intellectual property right gives adequate consideration to the issue of restriction of life-forms against the backdrop of its ethico-cultural, innovative and knowledge implications, the paper examines the restriction of life forms as intellectual property rights vis-à-vis its potentials as veritable economic portal for global competitiveness in the present international economic configuration. The paper observes that with increasing and subsequent transformation of life forms into the realm of intellectual property rights, the developing countries are capable of using life forms as intellectual property right to boost their global economic competitiveness. It concludes by identifying what African developing countries should do in order to effectively participate and maximize potentials of patenting life for global economic competiveness.
Keywords: Global Economic Competition, Life-form, Patent, Property Right