A Review on the Proposed Act for the Protection of New Plant Varieties

Abstract

Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) to which Sri Lanka also is a signatory, requires member countries to protect plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis system.Sri Lanka, in line with the TRIPS Agreement, passed itsintellectual property rights Act in the parliament in 2003. However, this law does not have a direct bearing on agro-bio diversity or the right of farmers. In recent past, however, the National Intellectual Property Office has drafted a bill dealing with these rights and presented it for the observation of Ministry of Agriculture on 26.07.2010. In this research, an analysis is made on this draft Act highlighting various impacts of some selected provisions of this proposed law. A protection for plant varieties is important as the plant breeding requires a long-term efforts and investments hence investors are disappointed to commit in the absence of protection. On the other hand, once a plant breeder releases propagating material of his variety, he loses the ability to profit from his achievement, since others may reproduce and use his variety without recognizing his work. Therefore, it is obvious that a creating a system of exclusive rights of exploitation for plant breeders in a country encourages them to start new plant breeding programs. On the other hand, Sri Lanka has been recognized as a biodiversity hot spot in view of its uniquely high levels of bio diversity. Sri Lanka is rich in both wild and agro bio diversity. Therefore laws in protecting agro bio diversity of the country and the rights of the farmers are also equally important. The proposed Bill on protection of new plant varieties (breeder’s rights) prepared by the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka is reviewed in the above backdrop analyzing and balancing the competing interests of both parties.