Breeders Rights are a form of intellectual property right obtained on registration within a country or region, which grants exclusive rights to plant breeders to protect new varieties of plants, algae and fungi that are produced by traditional breeding and transgenic modification. These rights often give the breeder exclusive control over the propagating material (including seed, cuttings, divisions, tissue culture) and harvested material (cut flowers, fruit, foliage) of a new variety of plant. The WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) requires member states to provide protection for plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis (stand-alone) system, or a combination of the two. Most countries meet this requirement through the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties (UPOV) Convention-compliant legislation.

This LESI Americas Committee and LESI Education Committee collaboration session will explain some of these rights, some variances among laws in some countries, some more recent advances in these areas, some of the controversies, and why licensing in this area is different and what are some of the important and difficult issues to address when licensing in this area.

Moderator:
Renzo Scavia - Peru

Panelists:
Aline Ferreira de Carvalho da Silva - Brazil
Dr. Juan Alberto Diaz Wiechers - Chile
Dr. Sara Quinteros - Peru
Kristi Johnston - USA

This event is free to participants.