User:Analiese Batchelor/sandbox

= Plant Breeders' Rights =

International rights
The most recent 1991 UPOV convention established several restrictions upon international plant breeders’ rights. While the current legislature of the convention recognizes novel varieties of plants as intellectual property, laws were formed concerning the preservation of seeds for future plantation, such that the need to buy seeds to use in subsequent planting seasons would be significantly reduced, and even potentially eliminated altogether. In addition, the 1991 convention also concerns the method of instigating plant breeding by implementing pre-existing and patented plant species as contributor of vital genetic information in the creation of what would legally be regarded as a new variety of plant.

Constituent countries of the World Trade Organization are required to acknowledge the creation of new varieties of plants, and to uphold these creations within full recognition of intellectual property rights laws. A formalized legislature, exemplifying the manner in which such intellectual property rights can be conferred, is demonstrated by the 1991 UPOV convention, which declares such rights upon an individual breeder. This document further identifies a breeder as one who has found or created a plant variety, one who possesses legal authority for the contractual production of a new plant variety, or one who has inherited legal rights to this form of  intellectual property as it was derived under either of the two aforementioned conditions.

As a result of debate over the protection of hybrid plants as new varieties, the legal measure of double protection, as expressed within the current iteration of the UPOV, can be taken. Double protection mediates the overlap between plant breeders’ rights and patents that exists within the purview of intellectual property rights law, by enabling the protections of both to be conferred upon a particular plant variety.

Plants as Intellectual Property
There have been contrary opinions expressed by both lawyers and scientists assessing the general necessity, if one exists, for the official protection of plants as a form of intellectual property. Currently, intellectual property rights protect ideas that can be demonstrated as being novel and undiscovered at the time of its legal claim as intellectual property. This definition of novelty, however, has been flexible throughout the history of intellectual property law, both internationally, and within the United States. Expectations of future changes to the legal protection of plant-related forms of intellectual property differ from the legal requirements for the first plant patent. Proponents of these laws recognize an overarching need for the financial support of research and development. Agricultural research and development, for example, has been specified as a particularly demanding endeavor, with respect to immediate concerns for the ability to sustainably feed an increasing global population. On the contrary, some believe that a more diverse approach than the imposition of intellectual property rights laws upon new plant varieties is required. This counter argument asserts that complex social, cultural, and economic factors affect the nature of intellectual property and its protection. A specific concern within this argument is with the means by which seeds are accessed within different local and international regions. Recognizing that this process is extremely transient in nature and can vary greatly over time, supporters of this argument purport that this diversity must be reflected within intellectual property rights laws in order for them to exist as an effective protection of plant breeders’ rights.

As a result of this conflict concerning authority over seeds, new legislature has been implemented in the United States. The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) is a national attempt that has been introduced within the United States, and is the first of its kind to model its approach regarding plant breeders’ rights upon the mechanisms implemented by openly sourced software mechanisms. Subsequent discourse on this approach has arisen, as concerns with the use of open source technology within a legal framework have developed. Some perceive OSSI as having significantly limited plant breeders’ ability to access intellectual property rights for new plant varieties. This has resulted in claims that funding for research and development in this sector will also decline.