As newer forms of intellectual propertyseeds, germplasm, genetic resources, plant varietiesmaterialize through advancements in biotechnology, a variety of entitlements, claims, and imaginations of citizenship are bred, mimicking the hybrid culture of genetic configurations. This book analyses the theoretical and philosophical frames of new (biotic) property, and assesses how its altered metaphysics inscribes itself in the politics of genetic resources. It probes how rights get framed within and by law, in the diverse yet closely interrelated aspects of social, cultural, and biological life. In particular, the book focuses on biocultural entitlements of farming and indigenous communitiespeople who are at a distance from the global networks of trade, politics, science, and technology. It explores the terms on which the interests of these indigenous communities are included and institutionalized as well as the degrees of exclusion and stratification that accompany them. It attempts to uncover the cunning or duplicitous nature of these rightsthe chasm between their intended benefits and their actual outcomes.

The book critically analyses the nature and scope of intellectual property rights using three different approaches: the philosophical, the empirical, and the theoretical. It studies the different justifications usually put forward in favour of protecting intellectual property rights, and shows how such rights come into conflict with other rights in society. The volume also discusses their benefits and drawbacks with the help of case studies. The author contends that rights can and should be 'structured in a lexical order of priority where rights which are linked to survival strategies ought to have enough legal teeth to trump rights which are more in the nature of economic entitlements, like intellectual property rights are'.