Syngenta received through the involvement of the German
startup company Greenovations an exclusive license for the
commercial use of the technology in developed nations. Simultaneously,
Syngenta granted back to the inventors (Potrykus/Beyer)
the exclusive license and the right to grant sublicenses
for its noncommercial use. Agreement has been
reached between the two tracks that we believe serves our
mutual interests. For example, all knowledge derived from
research on the industrial marketing track will be made available
free of charge to the humanitarian track of the project.
Moreover, a severe intellectual property rights problem in the humanitarian project that could not be dealt with by private
persons or by their universities has been solved thanks to the
input of Dr. Adrian Dubock of Syngenta. Development of
Golden Rice required the use of various technologies that are
properties of several industrial companies and some universities.
The noncommercial use of Golden Rice in the developing
world required the written consent of the respective intellectual
property rights holders. The necessary multi-lateral negotiations
required—as it turned out—interindustrial interaction
involving the respective expertise of various parties involved.