Comparative Study of the Nagoya Protocol, the Plant Treaty and the UPOV Convention: The Interface of Access and Benefit Sharing and Plant Variety Protection

Abstract

This study presents the existing situation and recent developments relating to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Nagoya Protocol), the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty) and the and International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV Convention). Intellectual property rights (IPR) are an instrument for the appropriation or allocation of benefits, and it must be assessed whether plant variety protection (PVP) can be a mode of equitable or fair benefit-sharing given the obligations found in the Nagoya Protocol and Plant Treaty, and how the Nagoya Protocol and Plant Treaty can be implemented in a mutually supportive manner with the UPOV Convention.

The primary aim of the study is to address the linkages between the requirements of the Nagoya Protocol, the requirements of the Plant Treaty, and PVP under the UPOV Convention. To do so, it addresses ongoing processes and current initiatives and measures at the national and international levels relating to the three treaties. Specifically, in order to examine the mutually supportive implementation of these treaties, the study reviews measures to implement obligations under the three treaties in the European Union and Switzerland. The study concludes with a review of the analysis of linkages between the three treaties, elaborates proposals for ensuring mutual supportiveness in their implementation, and identifies emerging issues that may profoundly influence their functioning such as emerging technologies relating to the use of genetic resources that rely on digital sequence information.

Keywords: Access and Benefit-Sharing, Nagoya Protocol, International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, Intellectual Property Rights, Plant Variety Protection