The Potential Impact of Patents on Australian Horticulture Industries

Abstract

Australian horticulture industries are actively engaged in the protection of innovation, information and invention through intellectual property. Over the last ten or so years, plant breeder’s rights has been the major way that horticulture industries have protected their new plant varieties. That said, there has been a level of dissatisfaction with the plant breeder’s rights system: most notably with saved propagating material (often referred to as farm saved seed regardless of whether seed, bulbs or cuttings are saved), and the breeders/research exemption. Furthermore, research and development into promoter and enabler technologies (as well as a desire to protect research methods and processes) has meant that some horticulture industries are looking to protect innovations outside the plant breeder’s rights system. There has been a general transformation in the use of legal systems used to provide protection over horticulture industries: so that now there is the possibility of using plant breeder’s rights, patents, confidential information, trade marks and contracts to protect plant-related innovation. This has the potential to have an impact on the management, research and commercialisation practices of the Australian horticulture industries and requires further investigation into alternate or conjunctive intellectual property protection to that provided under plant breeder’s rights.