Progress of plant variety protection based on the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV Convention)

In reviewing the progress of plant variety protection based on the UPOV Convention, the author briefly describes the original Convention of 1961 and the revisions in 1972, 1978 and 1991. He goes on to examine the results of the substantial increases in membership and in grants of protection. One such result is greater interaction with conventions and treaties such as TRIPS and the Convention on Biodiversity. Issues described in this context include the conservation of and access to genetic resources (GR), disclosure of origin of GR, prior informed consent for the use of GR, benefit sharing and farmers' rights.