Current status: Open
This consultation is open from May 29, 2024 to July 12, 2024.
About the consultation
With the strong support of industry, including farmers, amendments were made to the Plant Breeders' Rights Act in February 2015 to bring Canada inline with the 1991 Act of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV'91). Canada subsequently ratified this international convention in June 2015. These legislative amendments improved the intellectual property environment in Canada by encouraging greater domestic investment in plant breeding and fostering more accessibility to foreign varieties for farmers. The positive effects of strengthening the plant breeders' rights intellectual property regime were examined in the study: Assessing Impacts of the 2015 legislative amendments to Canada's Plant Breeders' Rights Act and UPOV'91 ratification.
The following consultation on proposed amendments to the Plant Breeders' Rights Regulations are an extension of the 2015 amendments to the Act, and are intended to further:
- improve accessibility to the intellectual property framework
- facilitate the release of foreign bred plant varieties into the marketplace
- encourage even greater levels of investment and innovation in Canada's agriculture, horticulture, and ornamental sectors
Join in: how to participate
- Read the Proposed amendments to the Plant Breeders' Rights Regulations and send us your ideas or comments via email to: pbr.pov@inspection.gc.ca by July 12, 2024.
- Please provide your name and email address so we may contact you if there are questions about your submission
Who is the focus of this consultation
All groups or individuals that are interested in plant breeders' rights, including:
- plant breeders
- the agriculture, horticulture, nursery, greenhouse, and seed industries
- farmers, growers, horticulturalists, and orchardists
- plant breeders' rights agents and licensees
- other government departments
- international trading partners
All comments are welcome.
Key themes for discussion
- Should Canada better align with other similar jurisdictions, such as the United States of America and the European Union, by clarifying that plant breeders' rights-protected fruit, vegetable and ornamental varieties, as well as hybrids and parental inbred varieties, are not subject to the exemption known as the "farmers' privilege"? As such, authorization of the rights holder would be required to save and reuse propagating material (e.g. cuttings, budding, grafting, seeds) for these types of varieties.
- Should the period of plant breeders' rights protection for potatoes, asparagus and woody plants, be extended from 20 to 25 years to encourage domestic breeding efforts and support greater access to new international varieties?
- Should a new application fee be introduced, offering a substantially reduced price when using UPOV PRISMA to file, in comparison to the normal plant breeders' rights application fee?
Related information
- Plant Breeders' Rights Office
- Plant Breeders' Rights Advisory Committee
- Plant Breeders' Rights Act (1990) and regulations
Contact us
Your opinion counts!
To submit your ideas, questions, comments to the Plant Breeders' Rights Office via email to: pbr.pov@inspection.gc.ca.