Report on CIOPORA’s participation in the UPOV meetings

CIOPORA Secretary General Dr. Edgar Krieger and the association's Technical Expert, Iulia Negoita, attended the UPOV meetings in Geneva from 19 to 23 October.

During those days, the CIOPORA representatives participated in the Technical Committee, the Legal and Administrative Committee (CAJ), the Working Group on Harvested Material, and the Council.

The main topics addressed during the session were:

Technical Committee: Use of molecular markers in DUS examination and variety identification and EDV assessment. This will be discussed further internally in the CIOPORA Working Group on Biotechnology.

Legal and Administrative Committee (CAJ): The CIOPORA Secretary General, gave a presentation on the understanding of the Essentially Derived Variety (EDV) Concept and recent developments in this area. He made it clear that for CIOPORA all mono-parental varieties, such as all mutants, are EDV. He suggested that countries, which include into their PBR laws a provision on EDV, should use a clear and unambiguous wording, like the EDV provision in the Plant Breeders Rights Regulation 2100/94 of the EU.

Working Group on Harvested Material: The UPOV Office prepared a revised draft of the Explanatory Notes on Harvested Material, intended to incorporate the results of the expert study on this topic, published some months earlier. However, because the draft was considered incomplete and left many questions open, the UPOV members decided not to start a discussion on the document, but to allow more time for further input from members and observers. This was fully supported by the breeders´ community.

Council: On behalf of CIOPORA, Dominique Thevenon made the following statement in the Council when it came to a discussion about the sustainable funding of the UPOV organization:

“Dear Mr. President of the Council,

dear members of UPOV,

CIOPORA would like to thank you for the opportunity to share its views on this important discussion about the funding of the organization.

Since 65 years UPOV has been working for the establishment and improvement of the Plant Breeders´ Rights system. Although this system is not tailormade for the breeders of vegetatively reproduced ornamentals and fruits, said breeders form the largest group of users of the system; in some countries up to 80% of all applications originate from these breeders. CIOPORA, the worldwide association of said breeders, has been an active observer of UPOV since the very beginning and contributor to its discussions, and a strong advocate of effective Plant Breeders´ Rights.

Since some years the Plant Breeders Right system is under pressure, through unfortunate and negative court decisions, that spotlight the weaknesses of the system, through economic circumstances, through alternative Intellectual Property protection systems such as patents and trademarks and through fundamental opposition of some interested parties in- and outside the organization.

UPOV needs to find answers to all this!

Therefore, for the short-to-medium term it is important for UPOV to

• improve the knowledge about Plant Breeders Rights in- and outside of the organization

• develop clear and unambiguous explanations of the content of the UPOV Acts

• to better promote the benefits of the Plant Breeders Rights system

• to assist potential members of the organization to develop effective and clear PBR laws.

Finally, a revision of the current UPOV Act is indispensable!

Whereas the first UPOV Act of 1961 has been revised after 11 and 17 years, and the 1978 Act has been revised after 13 years, the current Act of 1991 is still in force, after 35 years have passed. 35 years during which the horticultural and agricultural world has seen dramatic changes, through globalization, shift of production areas, climate change and new breeding techniques, to name only a few.

In our view it is high time for a revision of the UPOV 1991 Act, and we are pleased to share with you that CIOPORA has recently established a Working Group to develop detailed positions and proposals on how the next UPOV Act should look like, to provide effective protection for the breeders of ornamental and fruit varieties, while respecting the needs of the downstream parts of the value chain.

In order to achieve all this, a capable and sufficiently equipped UPOV Organization and Office is necessary, and therefore a sustainable and sufficient funding of the organization is key. We, therefore, ask all UPOV members to sufficiently contribute to the sustainable financing of the Office.

Thank you.”