The private value of plant variety protection and the impact of exemption rules

More than 25 years after the 1991 reform of the Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV) treaty, the regulation of Plant Variety Protection (PVP) is still controversial. While the incentives to private innovations are unquestionable, concerns have been raised about farmers’ access to resources, the weakening of their bargaining power, their entrepreneurial freedom, and ultimately their welfare. Our paper investigates the effect of PVP regulation on the governance of agri-food value chains (AFVC) with a small-scale survey of kiwi producers in Italy. We found that AFVC trading-protected (club) plant varieties are more likely to exhibit captive governance forms than those trading the free varieties. Nevertheless, the producers of club kiwis achieve higher returns from their investments and bear less risk than others. Because of the high demand for the club fruits, the breeders must give farmers highly profitable contract terms in order to elicit the production and to promote the adoption of the new cultivar. As a consequence, farmers are capturing a share of the value of innovation, even if the breeders have a strong protection. The long-run sustainability of this win-win agreement between breeders and farmers might be jeopardized should the demand for the new varieties fall.

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What is the impact of India's plant variety protection act? An analytical examination based on registrations under this act.

10.31220/agrirxiv.2020.00004 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Suvita Rani ◽

Shubham Singh ◽

Sujit Bhattacharya

Keyword(s):

Incentive Mechanism ◽

Primary Objective ◽

Registration System ◽

Indian Economy ◽

Plant Variety Protection ◽

Indian Agriculture ◽

Plant Variety ◽

Crop Development ◽

Variety Protection ◽

The Impact

Abstract Agriculture plays an important role in the Indian Economy with India's population largely dependent on agriculture. Mandated by TRIPS for providing protection for plant varieties, India has constructed a sui generis system for protection of plant variety, 'The Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Right Act, 2001 (PPV&FR Act)'. This act draws from UPOV 1978 as well as UPOV 1991, and incorporates some unique provisions keeping in view the challenges and constraints of the Indian agriculture ecosystem. As per the PPV&FR act, a registration system has been created for registering plant varieties under various categories. The primary objective of the paper is to examine what has been the impact of the PPV&FR Act. The paper addresses this objective by critically examining the registrations under this act. Does this act provide an incentive mechanism for different stakeholders to register their plant varieties? What does the registration indicate: in terms of types of crops being registered, the trend of registration under different categories, the stakeholder's involvement, and whether it is contributing towards stimulating innovation across the crop development ecosystem. These are some of the issues that the paper examines to assess the impact of India's PPV&FR Act.

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TRIPs: The Impact on Plant Variety Protection and Biopiracy in Developing Countries; Special Reference to Sri Lanka

Journal of Food and Agriculture ◽

10.4038/jfa.v1i1.1836 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Chathura AN Galhena

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Sri Lanka ◽

Special Reference ◽

Plant Variety Protection ◽

Plant Variety ◽

Variety Protection ◽

The Impact

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Plant Variety Protection: Current Practices and Insights

Genes ◽

10.3390/genes12081127 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (8) ◽

pp. 1127

Author(s):

Ju-Kyung Yu ◽

Yong-Suk Chung

Keyword(s):

Molecular Markers ◽

Intellectual Property ◽

Stability Testing ◽

International Union ◽

Plant Variety Protection ◽

Common System ◽

Continuous Innovation ◽

Plant Variety ◽

New Varieties ◽

Variety Protection

Breeders persistently supply farmers with the best varieties in order to exceed consumer demand through plant-breeding processes that are resource-intensive. In order to motivate continuous innovation in variety development, a system needs to provide incentives for plant breeders to develop superior varieties, for example, exclusive ownership to produce and market those varieties. The most common system is the acquisition of intellectual property protection through plant variety protection, also known as the breeder’s right. Most countries have adopted the system established by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). To be granted plant variety protection, the variety should prove to be unique by meeting three requirements: distinctness, uniformity, and stability. This review summarizes (1) the plant variety protection via UPOV convention, (2) technical methods for distinctness, uniformity, and stability testing via phenotype, molecular markers, and sequencing as well as their challenges and potentiality, and (3) additional discussions in essentially derived variety, value for cultivation and use testing, and open source seed initiative.

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Farmers’ rights and plant variety protection in Uganda: considerations and opportunities

Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice ◽

10.1093/jiplp/jpx138 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 12 (12) ◽

pp. 1004-1011

Author(s):

Herman Tuhairwe

Keyword(s):

Plant Variety Protection ◽

Plant Variety ◽

Variety Protection

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European Union Plant Variety Protection

10.1093/oso/9780192898234.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Gert Würtenberger ◽

Martin Ekvad ◽

Paul van der Kooij ◽

Bart Kiewiet

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Case Law ◽

Patent Infringement ◽

Practical Relevance ◽

Member States ◽

Plant Variety Protection ◽

Eu Member States ◽

Plant Variety ◽

Variety Protection ◽

The Eu

This book explains how the Community plant variety rights system works and provides guidance regarding the field of law relating to the Basic Regulation and other implementing regulations. It gives an idea of how the grant system works, the advantages of Community plant variety rights, and the aspects to be considered in exploiting and defending. It also explains the mechanisms in the Basic Regulation on how infringements of Community plant variety rights should be dealt with, including certain enforcement systems of the EU Member States. This book analyses major aspects that are considered of practical relevance in infringement proceedings under the applicable national law. It elaborates how the case law is limited in comparison with patent infringement proceedings throughout the EU Member States.

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