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Abstract

This chapter explores the origins of plant variety rights protection and the evolution of the UPOV Convention. It refers to the various revisions of UPOV and its relationship with the WTO TRIPS Agreement. It explores the impact on plant variety protection of the recent development in some patent laws which allow for the patenting of plant breeding methods. Plant variety protection in developing countries is discussed, as well as the environmental and ecological impacts of plant variety laws.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I.e. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

  2. 2.

    WTO Doc., WT/GC/W/171.

  3. 3.

    WTO Doc., IP/C/W/404, 20 June 2003.

  4. 4.

    OJ EPO 2016, A27 (G 2/12) and A28 (G 2/13).

  5. 5.

    P8_TA-PROV(2015)0473: European Parliament Resolution of 17 December 2015 on patents and plant breeders’ rights, 2015/2981(RSP).

  6. 6.

    European patent number 1.597.965.

  7. 7.

    See U.S. Pat. No. 5723765.

  8. 8.

    Ibid.

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Correspondence to Michael Blakeney .

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Blakeney, M. (2020). Plant Variety Rights and Food Security. In: Blakeney, M., Siddique, K. (eds) Local Knowledge, Intellectual Property and Agricultural Innovation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4611-2_5

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