International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants facts for kids
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Union internationale pour la protection des obtentions végétales
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UPOV Headquarters
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| Legal status | In force |
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| Headquarters | Geneva, Switzerland |
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Secretary General
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Daren Tang |
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Vice Secretary-General
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Peter Button |
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Parent organization
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WIPO |
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, often called UPOV, is an important group based in Geneva, Switzerland. It helps protect the rights of people who create new types of plants. Think of it like a special rulebook for plant breeders.
UPOV makes sure that plant breeders get credit and protection for their new plant varieties. This encourages them to keep creating better plants. The main rules UPOV uses are found in different versions of its agreement, known as the UPOV Convention. The most common ones are UPOV 91 (from 1991) and UPOV 78 (from 1978).
Contents
UPOV's Story: How It Started
UPOV was created by an international agreement called the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. This agreement was first made in Paris in 1961. It has been updated several times since then, in 1972, 1978, and 1991.
The idea for UPOV came from plant breeding companies in Europe in 1956. They wanted clear rules to protect their new plant creations. In 1961, 12 European countries agreed to the first UPOV rules. By 1990, only 19 countries were part of UPOV.
However, from the mid-1990s, many more countries from places like Latin America, Asia, and Africa joined. This happened partly because of other international trade agreements. These agreements encouraged countries to have laws that protect new plant varieties.
Today, both UPOV 78 and UPOV 91 are still used. Countries that were already members can choose to stick with UPOV 78 or switch to UPOV 91. But new countries joining UPOV must follow the rules of UPOV 91.
Who Belongs to UPOV?
As of December 2021, UPOV has 76 countries and two international groups as members. To become a member, a country or group must put UPOV's rules into their own national laws.
UPOV's office checks if a country's laws meet the requirements. Sometimes, countries have been turned down for membership. This happened if their laws allowed farmers to freely reuse and share seeds, which goes against some UPOV rules.
Many other countries and organizations also have "observer status" with UPOV. This means they can attend meetings and watch what happens, but they are not full members.
How Plant Protection Works
UPOV sets out the basic ideas for how new plant varieties can be protected. These ideas must be included in the laws of all member countries. Here are some key points:
- What makes a new plant special? It must be new, different, uniform, and stable.
- How to apply for protection? There's a clear process to follow.
- What rights do breeders get? They get special rights over their new plant.
- When are there exceptions? There are times when others can use the plant without permission.
- How long does protection last? There's a set time period for these rights.
- When can rights be taken away? If rules are broken, the protection can be cancelled.
To get protection, a plant variety must be:
- New: It hasn't been sold for more than a year in the breeder's country, or more than four years anywhere else.
- Distinct (D): It must be clearly different from any other known plant variety.
- Uniform (U): All plants of the new variety should look very similar.
- Stable (S): The plant's special features must stay the same over many generations.
UPOV gives guidelines to help test if a plant meets these DUS standards.
A plant breeder can apply for protection in any UPOV member country. They can apply in many countries at once. The protection only applies in the country where it was granted. However, the date of the very first application is important for priority.
What Rights Do Plant Breeders Get?
The rights given to plant breeders are similar to other intellectual property rights, like patents. These rights give the breeder a temporary control over their new plant variety. This helps them get back the money they spent creating the new plant. Creating a new plant can take 10 to 15 years and costs a lot.
The breeder must give permission for anyone to:
- Sell or market the new plant.
- Import or export it.
- Keep it in stock.
- Reproduce it (grow more of it).
This means the breeder can ask for a fee if a company wants to grow and sell their plant. The breeder also gets to name the new variety. The name must follow certain rules, so it's not confusing or misleading.
Exceptions to Breeder Rights
The 1991 UPOV agreement has four main exceptions to a breeder's rights:
- Breeders' Exception: Other breeders can use a protected variety to create new varieties. They don't need permission from the original breeder. However, the 1991 rules made this exception narrower.
- Farmers' Exception: In the 1978 agreement, farmers could generally reuse and share seeds. But the 1991 agreement changed this. Now, farmers usually have to pay a fee to the breeder if they want to reuse seeds from a protected variety. Only a few countries like Switzerland and the USA allow free reproduction for some crops by farmers.
- Private Use Exception: People can grow protected varieties for their own private use, like in a home garden. This is allowed for amateur gardeners and farmers who grow food for themselves. But they cannot exchange or give away seeds of protected varieties.
- Research Exception: Using protected varieties for experiments or research is allowed without the breeder's permission.
The 1991 agreement says that a breeder's rights must last for at least 20 years. For trees or vines, it's at least 25 years. The 1978 agreement had slightly shorter times.
If it's found that a plant variety wasn't truly new or distinct, or if it's no longer uniform and stable, the breeder's rights can be cancelled. Also, if the wrong person applied for the protection, the rights can be taken away or given to the correct breeder.
Different Ideas: Breeders' Rights vs. Farmers' Rights
Some international rules from the United Nations say that countries must protect farmers' rights to seeds. For example, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants says farmers have "The right to save, use, exchange and sell their farm-saved seed or propagating material." Similar rights are also in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
However, UPOV's rules, especially UPOV 91, can clash with these farmer rights. Under UPOV 91, farmers can only save seeds in very limited ways. They are not allowed to exchange or sell them. This means farmers might lose access to cheap seeds and become more dependent on buying seeds from companies.
Some experts believe that human rights, like farmers' rights to seeds, should be more important than property rights on seeds. They suggest that countries should change their laws to protect farmers' rights, even if it means adjusting their UPOV agreements.
A special expert for the UN, Michael Fakhri, said that UPOV 91 goes against farmers' rights. He noted that richer countries sometimes pressure developing countries to join UPOV. He encouraged countries to create seed policies that help farmers and their traditional ways of saving seeds.
In 2021, the Supreme Court in Honduras even said that their own law based on UPOV 91 was against human rights and environmental protection.
How UPOV Affects Things
Seeds and Their Availability
A study by UPOV in 2005 looked at how UPOV rules affected countries like Argentina and China. It found that the number of protected plant varieties increased after these countries joined UPOV. UPOV suggested this meant farmers benefited. However, some critics say this study was biased.
Another report in 2005, for the World Bank, found that strict plant protection rules had little effect on how private seed companies grew in developing countries. India, which has a very active seed industry, is not a UPOV member and doesn't have very strict plant protection laws. The report also said that farmers' own seed systems are very important. Strict rules might actually harm these systems.
A study in Africa found that after some countries joined UPOV, very few new plant varieties were protected. There was no big increase in plant breeding by private companies. This suggests that UPOV didn't necessarily boost new plant creation there.
For farmers, more protected varieties don't always mean easier access to seeds. In many developing countries, farmers rely on seeds they save themselves. If UPOV 91 rules stop them from saving, exchanging, or selling these seeds, it can make seeds more expensive and harder to get.
Farming and Food Production
A UPOV study looked at how UPOV 91 affected Viet Nam. It found that yields for rice, corn, and sweet potato increased. The study suggested that better plant varieties, thanks to UPOV, helped with this. However, critics point out that other factors could explain these increases. Also, for sweet potato, which had the biggest gain, no new variety was protected.
Another study suggested that UPOV 91 in Vietnam didn't lead to more investment in breeding or higher yields. Instead, it seemed to help international seed companies more, possibly weakening local public breeders and farmers' seed systems.
Food Security and Reducing Poverty
Many small farmers in poorer countries depend on seeds they produce themselves. These traditional seed systems are often strong and affordable. When strict UPOV 91 rules are put in place, farmers might not be able to save or exchange seeds. This can make them rely on expensive seeds from companies. This could make it harder for them to fight poverty and ensure they have enough food.
The risk to food security is a big reason why many developing countries are careful about joining UPOV or switching to UPOV 91.
UN experts have also warned about UPOV's impact on the right to food. They say that strict rules can make poor farmers depend on costly seeds and risk getting into debt. They also worry that the system might focus too much on big businesses, ignore the needs of poor farmers, and lead to a loss of different plant types.
Plant Diversity and Resources
Having many different types of plants (called genetic resources) is vital for all plant breeding and growing crops. Breeders need wild plants and farmers' traditional varieties to find useful traits, like resistance to diseases.
However, the number of plant varieties has gone down a lot in the last century. This is partly because a few popular commercial varieties have replaced many local ones. The rise of big seed companies and strict plant protection rules might have played a role in this loss of diversity. The UN Secretary-General noted that UPOV 91's rules could lead to a loss of biodiversity. This could harm small farmers and reduce the variety of food we have for the future.
UPOV's rules can also make it easier for companies to take genetic resources without permission, which is sometimes called biopiracy. This is because many traditional plant varieties cannot be protected under UPOV rules. Also, UPOV rules don't require companies to say where they got the plant material from.
For example, a French company tried to claim protection for a traditional onion variety from Niger. The government of Niger challenged this, and the company withdrew its application. This shows how easily traditional varieties could be taken.
Concerns and Protests
Several groups, including farmer organizations, have raised concerns about UPOV. They say that UPOV's meetings are often secret and that documents are not always public. They also say that UPOV has refused to let farmer organizations have a say in their discussions.
A study by Professor Graham Dutfield found that UPOV officials know a lot about commercial breeding but less about how small farmers develop new varieties. This means the UPOV system tends to favor big seed companies over farmers.
Some groups even say that UPOV acts in a "neo-colonialistic" way. They argue that UPOV's rules, which were mostly made by richer countries, are now being forced on all countries, including those in the global South.
In 2021, on UPOV's 60th anniversary, a group called GRAIN organized a "Week of Action: Stop UPOV." Activists protested outside UPOV's headquarters, symbolically "freeing" plants from UPOV's rules. This week of action was repeated in 2022 with more protests in different countries.
See also
- Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO)
- International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty)
- Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
- United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP)
- World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
