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Home >> Biotechnology /Genomics and Intellectual Property >> Intellectual Property Rights - IPRs for Plant Breeding >> Plant Variety Rights in USA
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Plant Variety Rights in USA
There are following three different intellectual property systems covering plants in the United States of America: (i) The 1930 Plant Patent Act (PPA); (ii) The 1970 Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA), amended in 1994; and (iii) Utility (industrial) Plant Patent 1985.

Of these, the US Plant Patent Act (PPA, 1930) is the world's oldest sui generis intellectual property system for patenting any kind of life forms. The proponents of the Act claim that the PP A has promoted extensive innovations in plant breeding and encouraged the development of useful plant varieties in different plant species. However, all asexually propagated food crops such as potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes were intentionally excluded by the PP A, since they were important for human welfare and therefore should not have been monopolised. High value flowers (e.g., roses and begonias) and fruit trees (e.g., apples and peaches) were typical examples of plant varieties that were allowed patents under PPA.

The PVPA 1970 allowed patent like protection (comparable to PBRs elsewhere) for sexually propagated plant varieties, although principal food crops such as cereals and vegetables were excluded on moral grounds.

The farmers and breeders were allowed to sell, exchange and breed new varieties, using the protected variety. However, in the year 1994, PVP A 1970 was modified keeping in view the provisions of UPOV 1991, so that the farmers' privilege and breeders' exemptions were removed.

The US utility plant patents were allowed from '1985 onwards for plants which met the criteria of novelty, utility and non-obviousness as required in industry patents. These are the most expensive to acquire. They are also more difficult to obtain relative to protections provided by PPA and PVPA. Nevertheless, these utility patents are preferred by companies, particularly for patenting transgenic plants.

 
 

 
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