Intellectual Property

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Intellectual Property

• A Shared Responsibility

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Protecting Seed Intellectual Property

• A shared responsibility on a local and global
  basis
• Fosters innovation in the seed sector, benefiting
  Canadian farmers and society as a whole.
• As a seed dealer you play a critical role in its
  success.

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Know your Responsibility

• Your seed dealer sales agreement may assign you
  the responsibility of
• Educating growers about benefits of IP protection
• Informing growers about the risks of not
  complying with the law
• Co-operating with seed piracy verification
  investigations
• Reporting suspected seed piracy issues
  anonymously

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Understand the Rules
5
Share the Benefits

• Providing seed companies the confidence to invest
  in RD
• Nine years 926,000 in RD one fusarium
  tolerant winter wheat variety to market
• Canadas seed companies will invest gt56 M in RD
  in 2007 and plan to almost double that by 2012.
• In 2007, research investment will account for 26
  of operating budgets of seed companies.

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Share the Benefits

• Yield benefits
• Canola ? 27 in 15 years
• Ontario corn ? 59 in 15 years
• Peas ? 25 in 30 years
• Wheat ? 22 in 30 years
• Ontario winter wheat ? 62 in 15 years

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Share the Benefits

• A continuous flow of new varieties with
• Improved disease pest resistance
• Improved nitrogen use efficiency
• Drought salinity tolerance

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Share the Benefits

• Economic benefits
• One new wheat variety boosted farm gate receipts
  by 562 M since its introduction. Less than 1 of
  this (4.5 M) was captured in the form of
  royalties.
• A new soybean variety generated an extra 2 M in
  farm income in just one year.

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Share the Benefits

• Traits for healthier foods
• Reduced trans fats saturated fat
• Omega 3 oils
• Increased anti-oxidants
• Increased beta glucan

• Traits for renewable resources
• Biofuels
• Bioplastics
• Ink
• Construction materials

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Share the Benefits

• Investment in innovation to keep Canadian growers
  competitive
• Corn, soybeans, canola account for 90 of seed
  company RD and result in more varieties with
  higher yields, improved disease pest
  resistance, and specialty food use traits.
• Over 700 corn, 500 soybean, and 200 canola
  varieties are available.

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Be Familiar with the Tools

• Canada Seeds Act
• Requires variety name to be used only to identify
  pedigreed seed
• Mandates the CFIA to enforce
• Sets out punishment
• Seed can be seized
• Fines of up to 250,000
• Up to 2 years in prison

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Be Familiar with the Tools

• Plant Breeders Rights (PBR)
• Plant breeder must comply with strict reporting
  and testing requirements
• Plant breeder has ability to charge a royalty and
  control the multiplication sale of propagating
  material
• Penalties for infringement
• Pay damages to the Plant Breeder
• Pay for withdrawing offending product from the
  market

13
Be Familiar with the Tools

• Bag and/or Tag Licenses
• Notices on the bag or the tag outlining the
  rights and obligations of the variety developer
  and the purchaser
• Purchaser agrees to the terms by opening the bag.
  Terms usually include
• Agreement not to replant the product of the seed
• Agreement not to use the seed for research
  purposes without written permission
• Acknowledgement of the penalties for infringing
  the agreement

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Be Familiar with the Tools

• Production Contracts or TUAs
• A signed contract between the developer and the
  purchaser
• Mandatory for purchase
• In some cases, purchaser agrees
• Not to replant the product of the seed
• Not to use the seed for research without
  written permission
• Submit to audit to confirm adherence to contract

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Be Familiar with the Tools

• Bag and/or Tag Licenses and TUAs (monitoring
  enforcement)
• Monitoring and enforcement is the responsibility
  of the developer
• Cost of infringement is high court settlements
  have included
• Financial penalties of up to 200 per acre or up
  to 20 times the original price of the seed
• Cost of investigations and litigation
• Destruction of crops
• Loss of access to all of that companys traits

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Be Familiar with the Tools

• Patents
• Canada allows patents on gene-based traits and
  eligible plants
• Varieties cannot be patented
• Patent holder has exclusive rights to use, offer,
  sale and produce the protected trait
• Patent holder monitors and enforces through
  courts

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Be Familiar with the Tools

• Trademarks
• Used to protect a trade name related to a
  distinct set of characteristics
• E.g. linola
• Used widely in ornamentals
• Trademark owner has sole right to the use of the
  name
• Use of the name without permission is an
  infringement
• Trademark owner responsible for monitoring and
  enforcement through the courts

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How you can help

• Know your responsibility
• Understand the rules
• Share the benefits
• Be familiar with the tools
• Look for more details on the CSTA web site at
  www.cdnseed.org