- facilitating the introduction and practical implementation of Plant Breeders’ Rights in countries where legislation on this matter is being developed or has recently been passed;
- a better understanding of how a Plant Variety Protection System works for those who are involved in the registration of new varieties.
Intellectual property rights for plant breeders
The protection of the rights of plant breeders is an important stimulus for the development of better plant varieties. The possibility to claim intellectual property rights on a variety, gives a breeder the exclusive rights to exploit it and to prevent others from doing so illegally.
Many countries are therefore developing and implementing a legal framework for the protection of plant varieties in intellectual property rights system. Besides developing legislation, the implementation of the Plant Breeders' Rights system has far-reaching consequences of a legal, institutional, technical, financial and commercial nature. In this course, participants will learn about these consequences, and about practical ways to implement new regulations.
Course subjects
The following subjects will be introduced through lectures, discussions and working groups:
- legal aspects – legal framework, requirements of the international Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), other systems, patents, regulations relating to genetic resource use;
- institutional aspects – procedures and administration, organisational setup, variety registration systems, collaboration and testing;
- technical aspects – the principle of Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS), practical DUS-testing, UPOV guidelines, field testing, biochemical/molecular techniques, statistics, data analysis, reporting, variety denomination;
- exploitation of plant breeders rights – enforcing rights, royalty collection, farm saved seed.
- you have a position in the variety registration system or have a position that will give you such responsibilities in the near future;
- preferably you are from a country that has recently developed a plant variety protection law or that is currently in the process of developing such legislation.
Source: Wageningen UR