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Dutfield, Graham --- "Plant Intellectual Property, Food Security and Human Development: Institutional and Legal Considerations, and the Need for Reform" [2012] ELECD 117; in McMahon, A. Joseph; Desta, Geboye Melaku (eds), "Research Handbook on the WTO Agriculture Agreement" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the WTO Agriculture Agreement

Editor(s): McMahon, A. Joseph; Desta, Geboye Melaku

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848441163

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Plant Intellectual Property, Food Security and Human Development: Institutional and Legal Considerations, and the Need for Reform

Author(s): Dutfield, Graham

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

5 Plant intellectual property, food security
and human development: institutional and
legal considerations, and the need for
reform
Graham Dutfield


I. INTRODUCTION
Plant variety protection (PVP) is a type of intellectual property right,
like patents, copyright and trademarks. As an intellectual property
right specifically for protecting new plant varieties, PVP has important
implications for crop improvement. But its significance goes far beyond
this. PVP relates also to agricultural and food policy, food security,
rural development, biodiversity and genetic resource conservation, and
human rights. To date, the only PVP system with international
recognition is the one defined under the International Convention for
the Protection of New Varieties of Plants whose contracting parties
form an association known in the original French as the Union pour la
Protection des Obtentions Ve´ge´tales (UPOV). Officially, 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'. UPOV is legally separate
from, but has a close relationship with, the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) which houses the secretariat (the UPOV Office)
in its Geneva headquarters.
UPOV started off as very much a West European club. The
Convention was largely conceived and designed by and for European
breeding interests in a way that balanced these interests with those of
farmers. Agriculture ministries were also involved. In its early years the
Convention applied exclusively to European countries. These same
European breeding interests continue to be ...