Section 30 and Sections 47 to 48: Research and the Compulsory Licence

In one line

Anybody may research on a protected variety and breed from it, and if the breeder will not supply the seed the Authority may order him to license it.

In exam wording: section 30 of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act 2001 provides that nothing in the Act shall prevent the use of a registered variety by any person for conducting experiment or research, or the use of a variety by any person as an initial source of variety for the purpose of creating other varieties, with a proviso that the authorisation of the breeder of a registered variety is required where the repeated use of that variety as a parental line is necessary for the commercial production of the newly developed variety; section 47 provides that at any time after the expiry of three years from the date of issue of a certificate of registration, any person interested may apply to the Authority alleging that the reasonable requirements of the public for seed or other propagating material of the variety have not been satisfied, or that the seed or other propagating material is not available to the public at a reasonable price, and pray for a compulsory licence to undertake production, distribution and sale, and the Authority, after consultation with the Central Government and after giving the breeder an opportunity to file opposition and hearing the parties, may order the breeder to grant a licence on such terms and conditions as it deems fit; and section 48 states the matters to be taken into account in determining whether the reasonable requirements of the public have been satisfied.

The section's own heading. Section 30 is headed "researchers' rights", and the two things it permits are set out below.

Section 30: the research exemption

Two things are permitted without any authorisation.

(a) Use for conducting experiment or research. Any person, any registered variety.

(b) Use as an initial source of variety for the purpose of creating other varieties. This is the breeder's exemption: the protected variety may be used as the starting point for breeding a new one, and the new variety belongs to whoever breeds it.

The proviso. Authorisation of the breeder is required where the repeated use of the registered variety as a parental line is necessary for the commercial production of the newly developed variety.

Where the line falls. Using a protected variety once, as a starting point, needs nothing. Needing it again and again as a parent to make the new variety commercially is a use of the protected variety itself, and that requires authorisation. The typical case is a hybrid whose production requires the protected line in every cycle.