Conference on "EU Plant Variety Rights in the 21^st Century", 11 October 2011 in Brussels

• Programme
• Conference documents

Presentations:

• EU Plant Variety Rights in some figures, Mr M. Ekvad, President, Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO)
• The UPOV Convention: an International standard, Mr P. Button, International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV)
• New developments in patenting plant species in Europe, Ms S. Yeats, European Patent Office
• EU Intellectual Property Rights on plants: the point of view of the EU farmers and users, Mr G. Kofoed, Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations & General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives (COPA-COGECA)
• EU Intellectual Property Rights on plants: the point of view of the EU breeders and of the seed industry on agricultural and vegetable crops, Ms S. Csörgõ, European Seed Association (ESA)
• EU Intellectual Property Rights on plants: the point of view of the breeders of ornamental and fruit plants, Mr E. Krieger, International Community of Breeders of Asexually Reproduced Ornamental and Fruit Varieties (CIOPORA)
• The views of Poland, Mr E. Gacek, Research Centre for Cultivar Testing, COBORU, Poland
• The views of the Netherlands, Mr M. Valstar, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture & Innovation, the Netherlands
• Outcome of the evaluation of the Community Plant Variety Rights Regime, Ms E. Smith, GHK Consulting Ltd

Evaluation of the Community Plant Variety Right Regime (2010-2011)

Final Report

Terms of reference of the evaluation and time-table

Why now?

• The Community Plant Variety Right regime is 15 years old. The agricultural, trade and market environment has changed since 1995.
• Stimulating innovation and a new entrepreneurial culture for the benefit of the society is now a EU priority.
• The Commission is stepping up its efforts on ex-post evaluation in policy-making and policy revision.
• Members of DG Health & Consumers' Advisory group of the food chain, animal and plant health showed a clear interest to review this legislation in 2009.
• This evaluation will complete the 2008/2009 evaluation of the legislation on marketing seed and plant propagating material, and will complement the evaluation of the Community Plant Variety Office.

How?

The evaluation was carried out by GHK Consulting over 12 months starting in May 2010. It focuses on 3 main questions:

1. Has the CPVR regime reached its targets - harmonization, incitation to innovation, simplification of the administrative burden for breeders?
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current CPVR regime e.g.: benefit for the farmers, including the "agriculture exemption"; for the breeders; for EU citizens and the EU economy?
3. What are the ways to address future challenges of the CPVR regime in a changing world and to amend it, if necessary?

Inter Service Steering Group

The Inter-Service Steering Group was set up to kick-off the evaluation and check on progress by the evaluator. Members of the group come from across the Commission.

Want to contribute to the evaluation?

Contact GHK.

EU legislation on plant variety rights

EU legislation establishes a system for the protection of plant variety rights. It allows the granting of intellectual property rights for plant varieties valid throughout the EU. The Community Plant Variety Right (CPVR) is a form of intellectual property similar to a patent.

The system is based on:

• Commission Regulation (EC)N° 874/2009 - implementing rules for proceedings before the Community Plant Variety Office;
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 1768/95 - implementing rules on the agricultural exemption in Art. 14 (3) of Regulation EC 2100/94 on Community plant variety rights;
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 1238/95 - implementing rules for the application of fees payable to the Community Plant Variety Office;
• Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 - Community plant variety rights