BP Singh

IIIntellectual Property Rights: Protection ofPlant VarietiesR.S. RanaIntroductionRights of inventors to obtain legal protection for exclusive useand marketing of their creative irinovations are widely recognizedand granted in the form of patents in many developed countries.These are intended to reward the inventors by enabling them toearn exclusive profits from the commercial application of theirinventions over a reasonable period of time and also to ensure thatthe new inventions and discoveries are fully utilized on acommercial scale for public good, particularly in situations whereinve:t;'ltors do not have adequate reso~rces to do so on their own.Licensing is the primary mechanism by which intellectual propertyrights are ttansferred from inventors to investors in a way thatbenefits may reach the users.Breeders' RightsIntellectual property protection of plant varieties is somewhatdifferent from that of the other forms of technology because a newplant variety does not normally arise out of a single innovativestep. It is rather developedirCa' cumulative manner in discernablestages "dth addition of a new advantage or genetic improvementat each level to a basic genulype which often happens to be apo.Vdar locally adapted variety. Fven though a new plant varietymay not involve an inventive step in the strict sense, its economicusefulness to society is unquestionable. It is, hence, important toencourage development of new varieties by providing incentives