Record Plant Breeders’ Rights settlement

Reference: Innovationnewsnetwork - Leading the way in crop innovation.

One of our most inspiring projects as an AgTech advisor is supporting entrepreneurs setting up a seed business. Positive impact investors recognise that European Farm to Fork strategies will not deliver their goals without plant breeding and are exploring longer-run investments that generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside financial returns. There is again more appetite for true “seeding” of startup seed businesses.

These young breeder-entrepreneurs need to be rewarded for their variety development efforts and exclusive rights to their own work, are essential to start up a sustainable seed business. In many countries, breeders are granted Plant Breeders’ Rights, i.e. exclusive rights to their new varieties to control propagation for a number of years. Farm saved seed is often allowed, but it is against the law to make unauthorised sales of a protected variety. Unfortunately, enforcement of these rights is not always easy. Therefore, it is remarkable to see that SeCan, a consortium of Canadian breeders, yesterday announced a $737,597 cash settlement of a Plant Breeders' Rights case, one of the largest settlements to date.

Reference: https://files.constantcontact.com/e9bd2607201/5e11da55-0fff-4679-ba89-1e5663857c5a.pdf