Traditional Plant Variety Rights or Patent of Biological Invention?

The result of the breeding is a biological material, which can be relatively easily further multiplied. Thus, a plant breeding sector needs an efficient, effective and enforceable intellectual property protection and at the same time a free access to protected varieties for the further breeding, development and innovation to guarantee the greatest possible genetic diversity of the new varieties. Czech Republic supports a current system of the plant variety rights protection under the UPOV Convention of 1991 as the most appropriate to the needs of the breeders and users of their products. The system allows not only the effective protection of the intellectual property but also return on investment in the breeding and thus a further development in this area. At the same time, through the so-called breeder's exemption allows to the breeders a free access to the protected varieties for the further breeding. Considering a scientific progress in the breeding and development of the plant varieties an increasing interest in the use of the patent rights as another option to protect the biological material is understandable. However in the current patent system the breeding exemption is not implemented satisfactorily.