The debate on whether biological/horticultural companies such as the giant Monsanto are able to patent plants and genes in general, has been a curiosity for me. Groups such as the Human Genome Project have always openly released any and all research that they are able to make. While private companies like Monsanto, Anheiser-Bush, et cetera have aggressivly patented anything they come up with, including parts of the human genome. This causes many problems, including if say some researcher (public or private) finds something facinating about a certain gene and try to research it only to months later be sued for infringing upon something someone else has already patented, all their research is thrown out and any sort of inovation that might have come from that research is rendered moot. An interesting article on url=http://slashdot.org]slashdot[/url] links to a comparision a person did between the biological industry and the technology industry here. What he states is that possibly patenting "life" may not be a good idea, for which the reasons...I'll make you read to find out.
I found his arguments well thought, and somewhat compelling. Though he isn't a horticultural specialist, he does make some sharp arguments. Satyagraha