Geneva, Switzerland
April 8, 2014
By Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch
Several committees of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) will meet this week. One of them is called to assess a draft legal framework on plant variety protection from the African Regional Intellectual Property Office (ARIPO). The draft legislation has drawn ire from civil society who charge that it is detrimental to small farmers and who argue that ARIPO does not have legitimacy to become a UPOV member.
The 50th session of the UPOV Technical Committee will be held from 7-9 April, the 69th session of the Administrative and Legal Committee is scheduled on 10 April, and the 31st extraordinary session of the Council on 11 April in the afternoon. On the morning of 11 April, the Consultative Committee will hold its session.
The extraordinary session of the Council agenda [pdf] includes examination of the conformity of a draft protocol for the protection of new varieties of plants prepared by ARIPO, with the controversial 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention.
According to Peter Button, vice-secretary general of UPOV, extraordinary sessions of the Council are convened regularly, the most common reason being to examine the conformity of laws more than once a year.
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