Geneva, Switzerland
October 16, 2014
The Council of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) held
its forty-eighth ordinary session on October 16, 2014.
Round-up of key developments:
Appointment of Secretary-General
The Council appointed Mr. Francis Gurry by acclamation as the Secretary-General of UPOV for the period from October 16, 2014, to September 30, 2020.
Developments on the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act for Zanzibar
The Council noted that the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act of Zanzibar, which was adopted by the Zanzibar House of Representatives, incorporated the changes in the decision of the Council of March 22, 2013, and agreed that the additional changes did not concern the substantive provisions of the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention. The legislation governing breeders’ rights now covers the whole territory of the United Republic of Tanzania and the United Republic of Tanzania can become a UPOV member.
Special Project Fund
The Council, at its thirty-first extraordinary session, held in Geneva on April 11, 2014, decided to create a special project fund for amount of the reserve fund exceeding 15 percent of the total income for the 2012-2013 Biennium. At its forty-eighth ordinary session, the Council decided to use the special project fund for training purposes.
Observer status
The Council noted that the Consultative Committee had granted observer status:
- to the South Centre in the Council and the Administrative and Legal Committee (CAJ);
- to the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) in the Council, the CAJ and the Technical Committee (TC).
Trilogy Publication
The Trilogy* publication, including the Executive Summary has been published in French (see http://www.upov.int/about/fr/benefits_upov_system.html). The Executive Summary has also been published in Spanish and the full publication will be available in the near future.
New Distance Learning Courses
In 2015, UPOV will launch a new DL-305 course “Examination of Applications for Plant Breeders’ Rights”, both as a single course, and also as two component courses: DL-305A “Administration of Plant Breeders’ Rights”; and DL-305B “DUS Examination”, in English, French and Spanish. (see http://www.upov.int/resource/en/training.html)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The Council agreed answers to the following FAQs:
- Does the UPOV Convention regulate varieties that are not protected by plant breeders’ rights?
- Is it possible for subsistence farmers to exchange propagating material of protected varieties against other vital goods within the local community?
- Under the UPOV system, breeders decide the conditions and limitations under which they authorize the exploitation of their protected varieties. Can farmers, for instance, be allowed to exchange seeds of protected varieties freely within the local community?
The Council also agreed a revision to the following FAQ:
- Why is plant variety protection necessary?
Plant Variety Protection Statistics
A total of 58 members of the Union now offer protection to all plant genera and species (56 in 2013), with 14 members of the Union offering protection to a limited number of plant genera and species. Of those 14, three countries (Brazil, China and South Africa) extended protection to additional plant genera and species in 2014.
In 2013, the number of titles in force exceeded 100,000 for the first time. The total of 103,261 titles in force in 2013 represented a 3.8 percent increase on figures for 2012 (99,501).
The Council noted that there had been a 6.3 percent increase in the number of applications for plant variety protection (14,788 in 2013; 13,908 in 2012), comprising an 8.7 percent increase in the number of applications by residents (9,502 in 2013; 8,739 in 2012) and a 2.3 percent increase in the number of applications by non-residents (5,286 in 2013; 5,169 in 2012). The number of titles granted increased from 9,822 in 2012 to 10,052 in 2013 (2.3 percent increase).
Cooperation in the Examination of New Plant Varieties
In 2014, the number of plant genera and species for which there were agreements between members of the Union for cooperation in the examination of distinctness, uniformity and stability totaled 2,005, compared to 1,997 in 2013.
Adoption of documents
The Council adopted the following documents:
- TGP/2/2 List of Test Guidelines Adopted by UPOV (Revision)
- TGP/5 Experience and Cooperation in DUS Testing: Section 10/3: Notification of Additional Characteristics and States of Expression (Revision)
- TGP/7/4 Development of Test Guidelines (Revision)
- TGP/8/2 Trial Design and Techniques Used in the Examination of Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (Revision)
- TGP/14/2 Glossary of Terms Used in UPOV Documents (correction of Spanish version)
- TGP/0/7 List of TGP documents and latest issue dates (Revision)
- UPOV/INF/16/4 Exchangeable Software (Revision)
- UPOV/INF/22/1 Software and Equipment Used by Members of the Union
- UPOV/INF-EXN/6 List of UPOV/INF-EXN Documents and Latest Issue Dates
All adopted documents will be included in the UPOV Collection (see http://www.upov.int/upov_collection/en/)
Election of new Chairpersons of UPOV bodies:
The Council elected, in each case for a term of three years ending with the fifty-first ordinary session of the Council, in 2017:
- Mr. Tanvir Hossain (Australia), Chairman, Technical Working Party for Agricultural Crops (TWA);
- Mr. Adrian Roberts (United Kingdom), Chairman, Technical Working Party on Automation and Computer Programs (TWC);
- Mr. Katsumi Yamaguchi (Japan), Chairman, Technical Working Party for Fruit Crops (TWF);
- Mr. Kenji Numaguchi (Japan), Chairman, Technical Working Party for Ornamental Plants and Forest Trees (TWO);
- Ms. Swenja Tams (Germany), Chairperson, Technical Working Party for Vegetables (TWV); and
- Mr. Kees van Ettekoven (Netherlands), Chairman, Working Group on Biochemical and Molecular Techniques and DNA-Profiling in Particular (BMT).
* Publication combining the proceedings of the “UPOV Seminar on Plant Variety Protection and Technology Transfer: the Benefits of Public-Private Partnership”, the “Symposium on Plant Breeding for the Future” and the “Symposium on the benefits of plant variety protection for farmers and growers”.
Topics
Species
