b'IS THERE A NEEDTO CHANGE UPOV?A SEED INDUSTRY VIEW ON ESSENTIALLY DERIVED VARIETIES. BY: MARCEL BRUINST he adoption of the UPOV 1991 ActMP:Deciding if a variety is within or not saw the advent of the Essentiallythe scope of EDV concept should depend Derived Variety (EDV) concept intoon a court decision like any enforcement the Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) system.question regarding IP title. The system European Seed wanted to learnproviding a judicial decision on the basis more about the various viewpoints onof an IP title in a country shall be inde-EDVs, so we sat down with Magali Pla,pendent of the authority of that country Deputy Manager in the IP Department ofin charge of the delivery of IP titles. Limagrain, to get her take on the matter. Now, the decision to enforce or not its title depends on the title holders. So, at EUROPEAN SEED (ES):the end, this is a matter between breeders MAGALI, WHAT IS YOUR VIEWand, in this context, arbitration can be a ON WHAT ARE ESSENTIALsuitable tool to solve a litigation.CHARACTERISTICS?MAGALI PLA (MP):Essential character- ES: WHAT WILL BE THE IMPACT OF istics are any characteristics, i.e. morpho- PLANT BREEDING INNOVATION logical, agronomical or even biochemicalMagali Pla TECHNIQUES ON EDV?characteristics which help to define or iden- MP:The concept of EDV shall keep all its tify a variety amongst others. They shouldexpression of a gene and therefore chang- meaning and scope whatever the technol-not be restricted to DUS characteristics. ing a characteristic of the initial variety.ogies used to obtain the derivation of an This is strictly in accordance with theinitial variety. Therefore, the use of new ES: SHOULD UPOV MAKEarticle 14(5)(b)(iii), wherein, except forplant breeding technologies shall have no A DISTINCTION BETWEENthe differences which result from the actimpact on the EDV concept and its legal MORE IMPORTANT AND LESSof derivation, the EDV conforms to theinterpretation.IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS,Initial variety. However, practically we could expect AND IF YES, WHY? that the broad use of technologies such MP:UPOV should not make any differ- ES: IS A MUTANT OR GMO- as genome editing could generate more ence between important or less importantVARIETY IN ALL CASES AN EDV?cases of EDV. We all thought about that characteristics. AND WHY? years ago with the arrival of transgene-A variety is defined as a wholeMP:An EDV is understood as being ansis. Today, it will depend on how broad through the combination of many differ- improvement of the initial variety. Suchthe use of the technologies will be and ent characteristics that finally makes thatimprovement can be achieved by addingmoreover how players will use them. variety. Consequently, defining an essen- new traits or characteristics through anyTime will tell us, but it does not change tial characteristic as a characteristictype of technologies (NBT, chemical orthe first part of my answer: the arrival of supporting for example the distinctnessphysical treatment, transgenesis or back- new technologies shall not change the criteria is too much restrictive.crosses). EDV concept and its legal framework as Inversely, a characteristic sharedBy essence, an EDV is defined byintroduced in the UPOV Convention.by many different varieties can stillthe combination of the (or almost all the) be essential for identifying a varietycharacteristics that define the initial vari- ES: IS THERE A NEED TO amongst others.ety and its improvement. Consequently,REVISE THE CURRENT UPOV Although we do not see a need ofas long as the derived variety is improvedEXPLANATORY NOTE ON EDV?a classification according to the impor- by the derivation and retains almost allMP:We believe that there is a misinter-tance, a characteristic should be, for thethe genotypic and phenotypic character- pretation of the UPOV EDV concept and best, reproducible in different environ- istics of the initial variety, it shall be con- legal framework provided by the current mental contexts. sidered as an EDV: this should indeed beAustralian law which we think is a threat the expected outcome for any mutagen- for a harmonized implementation of this ES: IF AN ESSENTIALesis- improved variety and also for GMO- UPOV right. CHARACTERISTIC WASversions of existing varieties obtained viaMost of our breeding programs CHANGED DUE TO AN ACT OFbackcross introgression of the trait and business are built in the respect of DERIVATION, CAN A VARIETYthe EDV concept provided by the UPOV STILL BE AN EDV? ES: WHERE DO YOU FEELConvention. We, and, we believe, the MP:Yes. We do believe that to conformSHOULD A DECISION LIE ONwhole sector, need to rely on a strong EDV to the initial variety, the derived vari- WHETHER A VARIETY IS AN EDVlegal framework which admits no misin-ety does not need to retain all the char- OR NOT? WITH THE NATIONALterpretation.acteristics of the Initial variety. This(PBR) AUTHORITIES, OR WITH ATo read the complete story, please would be the case of a variety derived byJUDGE OR ARBITRATOR? ANDread the full article on our website, introgressing a new allele changing theWHY? european-seed.com 26IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'