!093094 New book from Canada on plants, patents and GATT The International Development Research Centre (P.O. Box 8500, Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 3H9, Canada, 613-236-6163) has just published a book titled "People, Plants and Patents" (116 pages, $12.95 Canadian) dealing with the trends, concerns and opportunities in intellectual property rights relevant to plant breeding and genetic resources. These issues are becoming more important due to GATT, which requires all signatories to create intellectual property rights systems for microrganisms, microbiological processes and plant varieties. One goal of the international accords is to help less developed countries protect their natural biological assets while encouraging the industrialized countries to justly compensate those countries from which it finds news patentable biological materials. The book explores a variety of sociopolitical and biological perspectives without put forth a particular viewpoint. The book got a nice review in the New Scientist. Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service