World can emulate India’s protection of plant varieties and farmers rights law’

World can emulate India’s protection of plant varieties and farmers rights law’

Subject :Science and technology

Section: IPR

Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001

• Enacted by India in 2001 adopting sui generis system.
• It is in conformity with International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), 1978.
• The aim of the act is the establishment of an effective system for the protection of plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders and to encourage the development of new varieties of plant.
• The act also establishes Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• The major function of Authority includes
  • Registration of new plant varieties;
  • Documentation of varieties registered;
  • Preservation of plant genetic resource;
  • Maintenance of the National Register of Plant Varieties and
  • Maintenance of National Gene Bank (for conserving seeds of registered varieties).
• The legislation recognizes the contributions of both commercial plant breeders and farmers in plant breeding activity and also provides to implement TRIPs in a way that supports the specific socio-economic interests of all the stakeholders including private, public sectors and research institutions, as well as resource-constrained farmers.

Rights under the Act

Breeders’ Rights: Breeders (Seed Producers) will have exclusive rights to produce, sell, market, distribute, import or export the protected variety.

• A breeder can exercise for civil remedy in case of infringement of rights

Researchers’ Rights: Researcher can use any of the registered variety under the Act for conducting an experiment or research.

• Researchers can use the initial source of variety for the purpose of developing another variety but repeated use needs the prior permission of the registered breeder.

Farmers’ Rights: A farmer who has evolved or developed a new variety is entitled to registration and protection in like manner as a breeder of a variety.

• A farmer can save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce including seed of a variety protected under the PPV&FR Act, 2001
• However, the farmer shall not be entitled to sell branded seed of a variety protected under the PPV&FR Act, 2001.
• There is also a provision for compensation to the farmers for non-performance of variety.
• The farmer shall not be liable to pay any fee in any proceeding before the Authority or Registrar or the Tribunal or the High Court under the Act.
• Farmers are eligible for recognition and rewards for the conservation of Plant Genetic Resources of land races and wild relatives of economic plants.

International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV)

• The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is an intergovernmental organization with headquarters in Geneva (Switzerland).
• UPOV was established by the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. The Convention was adopted in Paris in 1961 and it was revised in 1972, 1978 and 1991.
• UPOV’s mission is to provide and promote an effective system of plant variety protection, with the aim of encouraging the development of new varieties of plants, for the benefit of society.
• The UPOV Convention provides the basis for members to encourage plant breeding by granting breeders of new plant varieties an intellectual property right: the breeder’s right.
• In the case of a variety protected by a breeder’s right, the authorization of the breeder is required to propagate the variety for commercial purposes. The breeder’s right is granted by the individual UPOV member
• Only the breeder of a new plant variety can protect that new plant variety. It is not permitted for someone other than the breeder to obtain protection of a variety.
• There are no restrictions on who can be considered to be a breeder under the UPOV system: a breeder might be an individual, a farmer, a researcher, a public institute, a private company etc.
• India is not a member.