The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act 2001 (In) and New Plant Varieties, Extant Varieties and Farmers' Varieties: A New Form of Property?

Abstract

The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act 2001 (In) provides for the protection of new plant varieties, extant varieties and farmers’ varieties. This article reviews the form and scope of these variety rights compared to existing international intellectual property standards for new plant varieties to demonstrate a significant evolution in the conception of a property right. The article asserts that the form of the new plant variety, extant variety and farmers’ variety rights establish a de facto permanent property right by requiring applicants to declare lawful acquisition and document plant material histories. While for extant varieties and farmers’ varieties this might provide some guidance about the form and content of the presently uncertain Farmers’ Rights and Traditional Knowledge, the article concludes that for new plant varieties this orders the public domain so that future breeders, evolvers and developers may not have unrestricted access and use to breed, evolve and develop new plant varieties.