China’s New Seed Law: Molecular Varieties and Macro Developments

Liz Freeman Rosenzweig co-authored an article for China IPR examining China's new and much anticipated Seed Law, which went into effect on March 1, 2022.

"The new Seed Law reflects a significant expansion in the scope of plant breeders' rights (PRB) protection in China," Liz wrote. "PBRs are a sui generis form of intellectual property protection available in many countries for plant varieties, similar to but distinct from patents or other forms of IP."

She added: "The first major change in the Seed Law is the introduction of EDVs [essentially derived varieties], which are required to be protected by China if/when it accedes to UPOV '91, the latest UPOV Convention. As China is currently a member of UPOV '78, the inclusion of EDVs is a major step in the direction of accession. Hinting strongly at exactly that, the definition of EDVs in the new Seed Law closely mirrors UPOV's definitions. This is a positive departure from the Draft PVP Regulations, which were the first to formally float the idea of EDVs into the Chinese PVP system, but did not precisely use UPOV's definition."

Read the full article.