Introduction to UPOV

Our purpose

UPOV’s purpose is to provide and promote an effective system of plant variety protection that encourages the development of new plant varieties for the benefit of society.
 
By granting breeders intellectual property rights known as  breeders’ rights, UPOV fosters innovation in agriculture, supports food security, and contributes to sustainable development.

What is UPOV?

The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is an intergovernmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. UPOV was established in 1961 by the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (the "UPOV Convention").
#

The mission of UPOV 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.

#

Development of Plant Variety Protection

What is a Plant Variety?

The term "species" is a familiar unit of botanical classification within the plant kingdom. However, it is clear that within a species there can be a wide range of different types of plant. Farmers and growers need plants with particular characteristics and that are adapted to their environment and their cultivation practices.

A plant variety represents a more precisely defined group of plants, selected from within a species, with a common set of characteristics.

#
#
#

Why do farmers and growers need new plant varieties?

New varieties of plants with features such as improved yield, high quality and resistance to plant pests and diseases are a key element in increasing productivity and product quality in agriculture, horticulture and forestry, whilst minimizing the pressure on the natural environment.

 

Many inputs need to be combined with such varieties in order to deploy their full potential. The tremendous progress in agricultural productivity in various parts of the world is largely based on improved varieties.

BREEDERS

VARIETIES

  • improved performance:
  • yield;
  • resistance to pests and diseases;
  • salt & drought tolerance;
  • local adaptation;
  • harvestability;
  • crop quality;
  • input efficiency;
  • consumer taste; etc.

FARMERS & GROWERS

  • input efficiency;
  • higher profitability;
  • access to new markets;
  • crop diversity;

Breeders 

Varieties 

  • improved performance:
  • yield;
  • resistance to pests and diseases;
  • salt & drought tolerance;
  • local adaptation;
  • harvestability;
  • crop quality;
  • input efficiency;
  • consumer taste; etc.
Farmers & growers
  • input efficiency;
  • higher profitability;
  • access to new markets;
  • crop diversity;
#
#
#

How are new plant varieties of benefit to society?

BREEDERES

VARIETIES

  • improved performance:
  • yield;
  • resistance to pests and diseases;
  • salt & drought tolerance;
  • local adaptation;
  • harvestability;
  • crop quality;
  • input efficiency;
  • consumer taste; etc.

FARMERS & BREEDERS

  • input efficiency;
  • higher profitability;
  • access to new markets;
  • crop diversity;

PRODUCTS

CONSUMERS

  • reduced land use for agriculture;
  • low cost;
  • high quality & nutritious food;
  • good shelf-life;
  • diverse range of products;
  • choice of products and source 

Farmers & growers

  • input efficiency;
  • higher profitability;
  • access to new markets;
  • crop diversity;

Products

Consumer

  • reduced land use for agriculture;
  • low cost;
  • high quality & nutritious food;
  • good shelf-life;
  • diverse range of products;
  • choice of products and source 

Case Study: Plant Breeding in Rapeseed

The importance and scale of the contribution of plant breeding can be illustrated by the example of Rapeseed.

 

Originally, only the oil component of rapeseed provided a useful product, as a lubricant for steam engines. It was only when breeders started to work on the crop that it attained major importance for agriculture.

 

Firstly, breeders reduced the glucosinolate content so that the meal could be used for feeding animals. As a following step, breeding was employed to reduce the erucic acid content so that rapeseed could be used as a source of edible oil for human consumption.

 

More recently, efforts are continuing, and breeders are working to develop high oleic and low linoleic acid varieties with nutritional benefits for consumers.

Breeding advances for rapeseed use

Rapeseed

Lubricant

Cattle food

Cooking oil

Health food

What is Plant Variety Protection?

#

Plant breeding is long and expensive

Plant varieties can be easily and quickly reproduced

Breeders need protection to recover investment

What is Plant Variety Protection (PVP) & What is a Plant Breeder's Right (PBR)?

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 members.

Who can protect a plant variety?

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.

#
#
#
#
#

Exceptions to the Breeder's Right (1991 Act of the UPOV Convention)

COMPULSORY

Breeding other varieties ("breeder's exemption")


The Breeder's Exemption

#

Acts done for experimental purposes

Acts done privately & for non-commercial purposes


Amateur Gardeners

#

Subsistence Farmers (Propagation of a variety by a farmer exclusively for the production of a food crop to be consumed entirely by that farmer and the dependents of the farmer living on that holding: Therefore, 'subsistence farming' where this constitutes acts done privately and for non-commercial purposes, may be considered by a UPOV member to be excluded from the scope of the breeder's right)

#

OPTIONAL

Farm saved seed

(A Contracting Party may restrict breeder's rights in order to permit farmers to use: for propagating purposes on their own holdings the product of the harvest obtained on their own holdings from the protected variety within reasonable limits subject to safeguarding legitimate interests of the breeder)

 

#

What are the conditions for obtaining protection?

Novelty

The variety must be 'new' in the sense that it must not have been sold or disposed of to others during a specified period prior to the filing of the application.

"DUS"

(Distinctness + Uniformity + Stability)

NOVELTY

Name of the variety to be used when offering for sale, or marketing, propagating material of the variety.

FORMALITIES & PAYMENT OF FEES

#
#
#

What information is there on the impact of PVP?

The introduction of the UPOV system of plant variety protection and UPOV membership have been found to be associated with:
  1. increased breeding activities,
  2. greater availability of improved varieties,
  3. increased number of new varieties,
  4. diversification of types of breeders (private breeders, researchers),
  5. increased number of foreign new varieties,
  6. encouraging the development of a new industry
  7. competitiveness on foreign markets, and improved access to foreign plant varieties and enhanced domestic breeding programs.
     
Further details on the benefits of plant variety protection and UPOV membership can be found in the "UPOV Report on the Impact of Plant Variety Protection" (paper copies available upon request).