What is PVP (Plant Variety Protection)?

​With an aim to provide and promote an effective system of plant variety protection, encouraging the development of new varieties of plants for the benefit of society, this is what Plant Variety Protection generally is. But to be more specific and precise it is a protection provided to the developers and breeders to have the patent right to the new variety introduced by them. The tenure might vary from trees to plants and seeds, where trees have a longer duration of possession than the other two. As plant breeding is long and expensive but plant varieties can be easily and quickly reproduced therefore the breeders need protection to recover investment, thus these plant variety protection act would allow the breeders or developers to be certified producers and growers of the new variety for a certain time period.

The Plant Patent Act was enacted by US congress in 1930. It was introduced primarily to benefit the horticulture industry by encouraging plant breeding and increasing plant genetic diversity. Plant patents encompass newly found plant varieties as well as cultivated spores, mutants, hybrids and newly found seedlings on the proviso that they reproduce asexually. Asexual reproduction is defined as any reproductive process that does not involve the union of individuals or germ cells. It is the propagation of a plant to multiply the plant without the use of genetic seeds. Modes of asexual reproduction in plants include grafting, bulbs, apomictic seeds, rhizomes and tissue culture.

The Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Act was enacted on December 24, 1970. Its purpose is to "encourage the development of novel varieties of sexually reproduced plants" by providing their owners with exclusive marketing rights of them in the United States. The requirements of protection are that the variety be uniform, stable, and distinct from all other varieties. Fungi, bacteria, and first generation hybrids are excluded from PVP protection. Varieties sold or used in the United States for longer than 1 year or more than 4 years in a foreign country are also ineligible for protection.

Conditions for obtaining PVP:

• Originality by virtue of being refreshingly novel variety
• Distinctness should be visible or witnessed in the new variety
• There should be Uniformity in the crop or plant
• The growth and quality should be Stable.

Other conditions:

• A variety must be identified by a variety denomination. The variety denomination is proposed by the applicant and approved by the Office for the variety in question if the Office considers this denomination suitable. The variety denomination is intended to serve as a kind of identity card for the protected variety, even after termination of the right.
• Formality clearance. No dues
• Payment of fee

International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV)

The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is an intergovernmental organization and not a 'treaty' as such. Countries are not​ obliged to join UPOV as a result of their affiliation with any other organization or the ratification of any specific treaty. Membership is purely voluntary.

Each member of the organization becomes bound to the UPOV Convention. The Convention requires member countries to provide an intellectual property right​ specifically for plant varieties. This form of IP protection is often referred to as Plant Breeder's Rights (PBR). As a result of the PBR, the plant breeder is granted a legal monopoly over the commercialization of her plant varieties. Protection allows the breeder to try to recover the costs associated with the development of the variety. By conferring protection on plant varieties, UPOV also aims to provide an incentive to individuals or companies to invest in plant breeding, thereby providing a positive stimulus in the plant breeding industry. The rights granted are for a specific time only (depending on the plant variety), and upon expiration of the time period, the protected variety passes into the public domain.

The UPOV Convention has been revised three times, however not all member countries are bound by the latest convention (1991). Approximately 26 countries remain bound by the 1978 Convention, while Spain and Belgium are bound by the original Convention (1961). The main differences in the two latest agreements can be seen in the table below:

List of members of the UPOV

Protection confers the right to exclude others from:

• Producing or reproducing
• Propagating
• Offering for sale
• Selling or other marketing
• Exporting
• Importing 
• Stocking for any of the above purposes the protected variety of crop or plant.

Since the Plant breeding is long and expensive, by which Plant varieties can be easily and quickly reproduced Breeders need protection to recover investment, through this act an its introduction the breeders are at easy. They are motivated and encouraged for innovation and invention without the threat that it might be replicated by the others.

Reference

Erker, B., & Brick, M. A. (2012, may 17). The plant variety protection act. Retrieved from http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/crops/00301.html

(2011). Retrieved from http://www.upov.int/portal/index.html.en

Strachan, J. (1992). Plant variety protection. Retrieved from http://www.nal.usda.gov/pgdic/Probe/v2n2/plant.html

Archak, S., Kochhar, S., & Gautam, P. L. (2000, 02). Policy brief 11. Retrieved from http://www.ncap.res.in/upload_files/policy_brief/pb11.pdf