Slashdot had a link today to the glofish.com website: a company which will begin distributing a genetically engineered zebrafish in 2004. These fish have an anenome gene cut into them so that they glow with a flourescent red color.

I suspect that I’d be interested in buying some. In scanning their webpage
though, I ran accross this:

Because fluorescent fish are unique, their sale is covered by a substantial number of patents and pending patent applications. The providers of GloFish™ fluorescent fish, 5-D Tropical and Segrest Farms , are the only distributors that have the necessary licenses to produce and market fluorescent fish within the United States . The production of fluorescent fish by any other party, or the sale of any fluorescent fish not originally distributed by 5-D Tropical or Segrest Farms, is strictly prohibited.

So in fact, you aren’t allowed to breed these otherwise normal zebrafish (their color is in fact heritable) to produce more or to hybridize them with ordinary zebrafish.

This brings up an interesting set of intellectual questions beyond just a glow-in-the-dark zebrafish. It seems that large transnational corporations have been patenting not just their own genetically engineered crops, but actual indigenous plants as well. Companies like Monsanto who normally supply farmers with seed for planting now use license agreements to keep farmers from using any of their crops for seed. It’s a wide, wooly area of patent and IP law, and we can
only be comforted slightly that patent terms are limited compared to copyright terms.

Try reading this website for a bunch of thought provoking analysis of the role that IP law holds for a world that still has lots of hungry people.