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Intellectual Property Protection
Intellectual property (IP) refers to various legal rights attached to
names, words, symbols (trademarks), recorded media
(copyrights), inventions (patents) or valuable
information or material that has not been patented
(trade secrets). Owners of these entitlements may
exercise exclusive rights known as Intellectual Property
Rights or IPR. The seed industry has undergone
substantial change in recent years in regard to IPR.
Prior to 1975, all of a species’ heritable traits were
available to a plant breeder. Even if these traits
existed only in proprietary varieties that were
protected under a Plant Patent (1930) or under the
Plant
Variety Protection Act (PVPA, 1970 and 1994),
cross-pollination of the protected variety and
reselection were and still are allowed under a breeder’s
exemption. Farmers are also allowed to save seed of
varieties protected under the PVPA for their use. The
PVPA protects varieties that are seed propagated and
plant patents confer similar rights to plants that are
clonally propagated such as strawberries.
Now that plant
varieties and unique genetic traits also are being
granted utility patents, the rights to these traits or
crossing to such varieties in a breeding program is
restricted without having a license. Although utility
patents may allow the developer to gain maximum value
from their investment in research, it limits the further
improvement of that germplasm by other breeders. This
creates the opportunity for seed organizations to
maintain market dominance in areas where they possess
elite germplasm or collect revenue through licensing
agreements on germplasm or technology. In practice,
companies routinely cross-license their germplasm or
traits.
Intellectual property protection allows plant breeders to control
commercialization of their plant varieties and plant
products (such as seeds) to ensure return on their
investment, but agricultural patents also make it
difficult for researchers to access patented
technologies when developing specialty crops or crops
for humanitarian purposes. Groups such as the
Public
Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA) promote licensing practices that provide sufficient motivation for
developing new crops and technologies while allowing
researchers access to the intellectual property
information they need to
utilize scientific
innovations for the greater good.
PIPRA
helps improve agriculture in emerging economies by
decreasing intellectual property barriers and increasing
technology transfer. They also work with farmers and
scientists in mature economies who are growing specialty
crops and help member institutions achieve their
humanitarian mandates by making sure their technological
innovations get to those who need it most.
Additional
resources:
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