Intellectual property protection and marketing of new fruit cultivars

Abstract

The most common international protection offered for fruit cultivars is plant breeder's rights (PB rights). The main international intergovernmental regulatory institution which provides for and promotes an international system of plant variety protection is the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). The UPOV Convention was first written in 1961 and subsequently modified in 1978 and 1991. The intention of the UPOV system is to ensure that germplasm sources such as protected varieties remain accessible to plant breeders. Plant breeder's rights usually include protection of the variety for not less than 20 years from the date of the grant, or 25 years for trees or vines and depend on which act of the UPOV Convention a country follows. In the USA, plant patents are used to protect clonally propagated cultivars of plants. One of the newest movements in intellectual property is the integration of trademarks into the plant protection and commercialization strategy for a new variety. There is also the license agreement which is the vehicle that grants nonowners access to the intellectual property at hand, whether it be PB rights, patent protection, or the use of a trademark. With increased intellectual property issues in fruit breeding, options are being examined concerning the sharing of germplasm for testing and/or breeding. Breeding agreements including public-to-public and public-to-private options are expanding. Marketing and commercialization for some fruit crops have become much more complex with territorial marketing, club models, and closed commercial systems becoming more common.