Sui Generis Bill On Plant Protection In Monsoon Session

The agriculture ministry is in the process of finalising the amended draft on a new, one-of-its-kind bill to protect plant varieties under the Uruguay Round agreement on agriculture.

Government officials said that the changed version of the Plant Varieties Protection Bill was ready and will be sent to the Cabinet for approval. Several objections had been raised to the original draft of the bill which would be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament scheduled to begin from July 23.

The Seed Association of India made several submissions seeking extensive changes in the proposed legislation.

The association questioned the farmers rights of selling seeds. It argued that the very purpose of plant variety protection would be defeated if farmers start selling seeds of a protected variety.

 

It has also said that the rights of the breeder should be made stronger in the legislation.

On compulsory licensing, the association suggested that it should be allowed only with the consent of the owner of the protected variety and that compulsory licensing should be resorted to only when the public interest is clearly defined and that too after suitably compensating the breeder. The officials said that the final version of the bill was being circulated to different ministries, including the law ministry, and Planning Commission. They said that the bill, in its new form, stood a good chance of being passed.

Article 27 of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement provides that members may exclude from patentability plants and animals (other than micro organisms), and essentially biological processes for the production of plants and animals (other than non-biological and microbiological processes).

However, the Article specifies that the member countries shall provide for the protection of plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis (one of its own) system or by any combination thereof.

According to the Article, the provision shall be reviewed after four years, that is in 1999, and a global model would be evolved for adoption by all member countries like in the case of patents. However, the transitional arrangements provided in Article 65 of the TRIPs agreement allow developing countries five years to establish their own system of plant breeders rights.

This implies that there is no obligation to evolve the new system till the year 2000. The TRIPs agreement, however, does not suggest any model for a Bill. The provisions of the Plant Varieties Act that the government proposes to introduce have to be examined against the provisions of the UPOV Convention 91, the officials said.