BREEDER RIGHTS ▶▶▶ NEED TO KNOW
▶ Breeders can require user agreements under current regulations, but implementation is a problem with presence of “farmers’ privilege”. ▶ Breeder groups favour contract royalty option with clarification of breeder rights. ▶ Major producer organisations have yet to take a position.
A royalty payable on all harvested material (i.e., grain) that is collected is one option. Royalty collection enabled via contracts is the other.
farmers who prefer to save seed – or those who don’t anticipate a favourable cost-to-benefit ra- tio – would still be able to plant those varieties not restricted by user contracts.
Contract law and breeder rights Royalties from seed user agreements can al- ready be used under Canada’s current contract law. But Mr Carey says it’s “cost-prohibitive” for smaller and public breeders. “There would be a plethora of contract types out there with no group to assist in oversight or collection of the fees,” he says. “Changes to the regulations
allows for a concerted dialogue with producers and gives small breeders the additional sup- port of the use of contracts supported by fed- eral regulation.” “It also makes the whole thing much more transparent to have government involvement,” Lorne Hadley, executive director of the Canadi- an Plant Technology Agency – a non-profit or- ganisation supporting intellectual property rights within the seed industry – says legal clarification is also needed for current regula- tions pertaining to breeder rights and what farmers’ privilege really entails. More
specifically, he says the language used in the current farmers’ privilege definition extends the right to save seed to all crops, even in areas like fruit trees and others where farmers’ privi- lege is not appropriate. That language may lead people to believe they can act in a way that the contract would restrict. “The language has to be edited a bit so farmers can under- stand it,” he says. “What goes on in other coun- tries gets brought up a lot […] We have a to- tally different regulatory system in Canada. What we’re seeking is a made in Canada solu- tion, based on the system we have today.”
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▶ FUTURE FARMING | 22 February 2019
PHOTO: FARM & FOOD CARE
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