The advancement of human civilization is a story of the gradual substitution of brainpower for physical labor.
In the first Industrial Revolution, one product of brainpower--machines--came to replace monotonous physical labor.
In the second Industrial Revolution--the appearance of artificial intelligence--the computer is able to replace a portion of brainpower work itself, and scientific and technological development has grown at an exponential rate.
This is an era in which the success or failure of an endeavor is determined by brainpower, true even of the oldest industry in human society--agriculture.
From the use of agricultural machinery, through advances in fertilizers and pesticides and the constant improvement of cropraising techniques, to the improvement of seed varieties, the success of agricultural production no longer depends on the whims of heaven but on the progress of science and technology.
Each scientific or technological advance is the fruit of years of painstaking research, and only if these advances are protected under the law can more people be encouraged to take part in research. But for a long time, the law has excluded the improvement of crop varieties from the protection afforded to intellectual property.
The main reason is that the improvement of crop varieties was mostly handled by government agencies rather than private businesses. The purpose of bringing out new varieties was to benefit farmers, and sometimes the government, far from applying for a patent, had to beg and plead with farmers to use them.
But as increased attention has been given to crop improvement and more and more private firms and individuals have started to engage in it, the need of patenting new varieties to protect a reasonable profit has gradually become recognized. In the United States, for instance, the invention or discovery of new or improved plant varieties was clearly granted patent protection only in 1954, 160 years after the laws first appeared, In the 1970s, the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands and 14 other countries joined together to form the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, which protects patents for new varieties in the participating countries.
In the R.O.C., patent protection for new plant varieties was written into the books at the end of 1988, with the promulgation of the Seed and Seedling Law. The implementation of the law has not only encouraged more people to take part in the improvement of crop varieties but has also had a profound significance in establishing the concept of intellectual property rights.
This issue's cover story, "New Agriculture for a New Age," explores the future direction of agricultural development, while the article "Plant Varieties Are Private Property Too" delves into the ins and outs of implementing the Seed and Seedling Law.
On February 14, Chinese New Year's Eve, Taiwan was wrapped in an atmosphere, of festivity for the New Year and tension over the war in the Middle East.
In the Tigerwatch corps camp at Kuantu, corps commander Wang, just having finished New Year's dinner with the troops, talked about the situation in the Middle East and its implications for national security:
"Iraq's invasion of Kuwait tells us that money is no help to a country's security. Taiwan may be awash in money, but Kuwait was up to its eyeballs.
"Becoming more internationally oriented is no guarantee of national security. Kuwait City was way more cosmopolitan than Taipei, but that didn't mean anything to the invaders.
"Detente in the big picture doesn't mean that regional conflicts can be avoided. . . ."
As the rest of us gathered together at home with our loved ones, the troops in the military remained firmly at their posts. In "New Year in Battle Dress and Helmets" a team of reporters visited a military base to report on how New Year's Eve is spent by our troops in uniform.
In order to bring you their story and more, our reporters worked right up to the last minute of the Year of the Horse and then on into the night, as firecrackers rang out across the land to celebrate the Year of the Sheep.
[Picture Caption]
Sinorama reporters visited military camps on New Year's Eve. Show here is staff reporter Vantine Tsai with the member of the Marine Patrol Corps. (photo by Diago Chiu)