This just goes to show the west has blatant cultural disregard for intellectual property - this was daring IP theft, calculated to displace the innovative Russian rhubarb industry and costing it millions of pounds /s
There's plenty of incentives in the market to innovate in the GMO space without legal protections, as there have been for thousands of years. Absent those protections, GMO development would probably see more cooperation innovation without hurting the speed of innovation.
Regional protections for product labeling make a lot more sense (vidalia onions...) and improve competition while still benefiting large growers.
_The Thief at the end of the World_, the story of "bio-pirate" Henry Wickham, who smuggled rubber seeds out of Brazil in the 1870s, is a great read.[0]
[0]-https://www.amazon.com/Thief-End-World-Rubber-Empire/dp/0670...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Samaritans:_The_Myth_of_Fr...
"Free Trade" and strong "intellectual property" regimes are tools of economically dominant, not upstart, countries.
Related:
Chamber's Encyclopaedia, Editorial Statement, Revised Edition, 1874: Or a 19th Century Edit War
https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/4xe2k1/chamber...
("Free trade" plays a role.)