UPOV COUNCIL APPOINTS NEW VICE SECRETARY-GENERALThe Council of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) appointed on April 7, 2000, Dr. Rolf Jördens, a German national, to the post of Vice Secretary-General. Dr. Jördens succeeds Mr. Barry Greengrass, a national of the United Kingdom, who will retire this year after twelve years of service with UPOV. UPOVs Secretary-General is Dr. Kamil Idris, who is also the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Dr. Jördens, a native German speaker who is also fluent in English and French, will take up his position this summer to become the fifth Vice Secretary-General of UPOV. The new Vice Secretary-General holds a Doctors degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim, Germany. He has had a scientific and administrative career in the Federal Government in the field of agriculture. Since July 1997, Dr. Jördens has been President of the Federal Office of Plant Varieties (Bundessortenamt) in Hanover, Germany. The election of the Vice Secretary-General took place during the week-long spring sessions of UPOV from 3 to 7 April 2000. Highlights of MeetingsThe Technical Committee (April 3 to 5, 2000) adopted Test Guidelines for eight species, outlined the future work of its five Technical Working Parties and made progress in drafting the revision of the basic principles for the testing of varieties in light of the worldwide expansion of UPOV. The Administrative and Legal Committee (April 6, 2000) discussed several legal issues concerning plant variety protection, such as definition of the notions of breeder and trees and vines, the links between a hybrid variety and its components with respect to novelty, and the breeders exemption, whereby breeders are free to use protected varieties for the purposes of further breeding. The seventeenth extraordinary session of the Council of UPOV (April 7, 2000) took a positive decision on the conformity of the Bangui Agreement Establishing an African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), of the Bill of Honduras and of the Law of Kazakhstan with the UPOV Convention. BackgroundUPOV is an intergovernmental organization which cooperates in administrative matters with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Its offices are located in the WIPO headquarters building in Geneva, Switzerland. The purpose of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants is to ensure that the breeder of a new plant variety is recognized and protected for a given period of time by an intellectual property right. The member States of UPOV grant such a right, under their national legislation, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention. The following 44 States are member States of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV): Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay.For further information about UPOV, please contact the UPOV Secretariat: Tel. (+41-22) 338 9155 [End] |
