INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – UNDERSTANDING PLANT BREEDER’S RIGHTS

4.1 PLANT BREEDING

Plant breeding is defined in Section 5 of the Plant Breeder's Rights Act 1994 as follows:

	1)	A reference in this Act to breeding, in relation to a new plant variety, includes a reference to the discovery of a plant together with its use in selective propagation so as to enable the development of the new plant variety.
	2)	If a plant is discovered by one person but used in selective propagation by another so as to enable the development of a new plant variety, those persons are together taken to be the joint breeders of the new plant variety.

This broadly defines breeding as including 'discovery' and 'selective propagation'. Neither 'discovery' nor 'selective propagation' is defined. This has stimulated considerable debate as to whether they are technically "plant breeding". As a result the PBR Office had an Expert Panel on Plant Breeding prepare a Report (the Expert Panel Report) which is not duplicated here, but which should be consulted if there is doubt as to whether a particular variety conforms with the technical assessment.

The Panel specifically noted that the finding/importation of a variety, by itself, does not meet the above criteria of breeding. Consequently, the test for eligibility for PBR protection is not satisfied.The Panel also noted that the Plant Breeder's Rights Act 1994 does not discriminate; all varieties are assessed against the same criteria, regardless of the method of their origination. One of the criteria is that there must be a "breeder" of the new variety.

Click “More Info” for findings of the Expert Panel on Plant Breeding.

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