UPOV continues to influence..
by GRAIN
As industrialised countries, in particular the United States, and the Union for the Protection of new Varieties of Plants (UPOV) continue to pressurise the South into providing intellectual property rights for breeders, two more countries have recently shown their willingness to join the Union. The Indian Government has decided to seek membership and the Philippines' legislature has adopted a UPOV-style Plant Variety Protection (PVP) law. The pressure stems from the requirement for countries to develop a sui generis system of protection for plant varieties under the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Despite countries not needing to comply with UPOV standards to meet their TRIPS requirements, they are being compelled to do so by external pressure.
in India
On 31 May the Indian Cabinet approved the Government's decision to seek accession to UPOV. This means that India will need to submit its recently adopted law – the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Rights Act, 2001 (PVP&FR) – to the UPOV Council. The Council, which next meets in October, will then assess whether the law is in conformity with the UPOV Convention or requires amendment. Although the current PVP&FR Law of India is modelled on UPOV 1978, it does contain vague, and much criticised, references to farmers' rights, which go beyond what UPOV would allow under its “farmer's privilege”. Most observers, including Indian government officials, expect UPOV to ask for changes in the law if India wants to push through with joining the Union which would entail a drastic trimming down of these farmers' provisions. However UPOV's main concern will also be to ensure that India does join up, being the one of the world's most populous countries. Despite 85% of all planted seed in India grown by farmer's themselves, it would appear that the interests of the farmers has once again been ignored.
in the Philippines
A week later, on 7 June, the Philippines' Government signed into law the Plant Variety Protection Act, based on the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention. The Government says in its Press Release, that the Act “is aimed at protecting and securing the exclusive rights of plant breeders with respect to their new plant variety, particularly when beneficial to people, through an effective intellectual property system”. Mario Denito, from MASIPAG in the Philippines (a national organisation which encourages farmer-led breeding) claimed that “this PVP Act is not about enhancing food security nor agricultural research and development in the country; it is about organising, marketing and distributing of corporate controlled seeds and technologies for greater corporate profits”. A number of Philippine organisations have also accused a USAID funded think tank, Development Alternatives Inc. (their slogan is “Solving economic development problems worldwide”), of influencing the writing of the Bill to suit US interests. Although the Philippines has not yet sought to join UPOV, their legislation is ideally suited for membership.
With text taken from BIO-IPR – the GRAIN email list which circulates information about recent developments in the field of intellectual property rights related to biodiversity and associated knowledge. To get on the mailing list visit www.grain.org/about/subscribeipr.cfm.
To see which countries have joined or are in the process of joining UPOV, are consulting UPOV, or have adopted national PVP legislation visit the GRAIN website (title of the page is “PVP in the south: caving into UPOV”) at: www.grain.org/publications/pvp-south-upov-en.cfm (updated regularly)
Also visit the BRL – the Biodiversity Rights Legislation section of the GRAIN website. Here you will find a collection of emerging laws, updated regularly, that directly affect people's control over agricultural biodiversity in developing countries. There are now two ways of accessing the materials, by country or by type of law, all at www.grain.org/brl/.
Reference for this article: GRAIN, 2002, Sprouting up - UPOV continues to influence.. , Seedling, July 2002, GRAIN Publications
Website link: www.grain.org/seedling/seed-02-07-5-en.cfm
What is Seedling? Seedling is the quarterly magazine of GRAIN. It provides thought-provoking articles on all aspects of GRAIN’s work and more. To receive Seedling in paper or electronic format (on a CD Rom), or to inform us of a change of address, please contact GRAIN at the address below.