Various cultivated plants improve every year and acquire new properties that allow you to get a high yield and resistance to disease. This effect is achieved thanks to the fruitful work of breeders. Who are they and how do they defend their rights?
Selection Concepts
A breeder is an individual who has improved certain properties of a well-known plant, animal, microorganism or developed a new variety, breed or species. A selection achievement is the result of a process of such improvement or breeding.
Such achievements belong to creative ownership and are protected by a special patent legal form of legislation. To obtain an official right to a selection achievement, it must be registered by writing a corresponding application. After that, the result of intellectual property must pass certain tests and receive a title of protection. Only an individual breeder can be recognized as the author of such a work, thanks to the intellectual efforts of which a new variety was obtained, a breed or known ones were improved. The name of the author must be indicated in the patent for selection achievement. Co-authors can also take part in the work and will be indicated in the document if the result of their activity is recognized as useful. Officially, both an individual and a legal entity can obtain a patent.
What can I get intellectual rights to?
Objects that can be registered as selection achievements are clearly described in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in article 1412. According to this resolution, plant or animal species that meet all the requirements for selection achievements can be recognized as intellectual property.
For plants, the requirement is the presence of a culture or part of it, from which you can definitely recreate the whole variety. Also, the plant should belong to a certain group according to several characteristics, have a certain genotype or a combination similar to other representatives. A new species should differ from existing group representatives by several or only one property.
A selection achievement is not only new plant species. You can register the rights to the breed of the animal. The new representative is also obliged to possess certain genetic similarities with other representatives of the group to which he belongs, but at the same time differ from them in one or more ways.
In order for the State Register of Breeding Achievements to recognize and register a new animal, it is necessary to provide breeding material, an embryo or one individual male or female.
Who is registering?
Today, you can register your own achievement and obtain a patent for it only at the Ministry of Agriculture. The register of breeding achievements itself is a single publication for plants and animals, issued in separate volumes. Only active and protected breeding achievements at the time of publication can get into it.
To stimulate citizens to improve and create their own varieties of plants, the state provides certain benefits to their authors. Thus, all profits from the sale and use of the result of the work of breeders are not taxed for two years. For trees, grapes and their stocks, this period is increased to five years. At the same time, all the income received when using intellectual labor by a state organization remains at its full disposal. Authors, as individuals, receive benefits for lending, taxation and so on.
Registry Information
The exclusive right to a selection achievement is protected only upon its recognition and registration in the state register. According to it, each copyright holder must have a patent for the corresponding property.
From the state registry you can find the following information about the object:
- name and code of the variety;
- priority date;
- date of inclusion in the register;
- date of exclusion from the approved ones (if any);
- name of the current patent holder;
- patent number and date of registration;
- expiration date of the title of protection and the reason.
Also, the state list of selection achievements necessarily contains data on authors, former patent holders, licensees and licenses.
To date, the State Register of Breeding Achievements Approved for Use is published in two separate volumes. The first contains only plant varieties, and the second contains animal breeds.
First volume
The number of selection achievements contained in it is growing every year, but finding the right one will not be difficult. All varieties on the list are distributed alphabetically by genus and species. Further, they are all united in their families and groups for use. Each selection achievement is a variety that has its own code, name, number of the region of use, date of inclusion in the list, and data of the breeder and copyright holder. Here you can find all the best varieties of barley, wheat, sunflower and other crops. Hybrids of the same plants with their own numbers are described separately. The registry does not include any genetically modified crops.
Separate marking
The State Register of Breeding Achievements includes some varieties of plants indicated by the letter “c” before the code. Such marking means that these species are protected by patents on the results of selection achievements. To carry out any actions with seeds or seedlings of such varieties, you must purchase a special license. In the entire first volume of such plants, approximately half of the available list, but in fact only part of them are in action. A small part of the registered plants generally does not have access to use.
In the annexes to the main list, you can find a list of plants that were previously included in the main register, but which left it for various reasons. This can happen due to late payment for a patent, non-payment for it at all, refusal or cancellation of a document. Plants are also published there, applications for inclusion of which are only under consideration. The area code indicates the best area for cultivating a particular crop. If in this column is “*”, then you can grow a plant in any region of the country.
The labeling “gk” in a separate column indicates that the crop belongs to lawn and fodder plants. This designation has perennial herbs, most often growing throughout the country.
Averaged data
The list of breeding achievements is updated at the beginning of each year and, on average, a thousand new plant species are added to the old list. Almost all of them are moving from an application that describes candidates for inclusion in the main list. Changes in other parameters are not so noticeable. Not more than a few hundred are excluded from the list for various reasons, and the reduction or expansion of use concerns only a few dozen. Only the Federal State Institution “State Commission of the Russian Federation for the Testing and Protection of Breeding Achievements” has the right to make any changes to the register.
List Benefits
If the copyright holder timely brings the relevant statement to the commission, then the operation of the variety or species of plant registered by him will continue in the old order. What does this give the originator? The presence of varieties in the list allows the use of selection achievements not only for personal purposes. Planting material can be sold, propagated, transported under all conditions. To do this, each variety must be tested, after which an appropriate certificate is issued for the seeds. It provides recommendations for specific growing regions, variety, origin of the material and its quality. You can find out the details of the procedure at the branches of the State Commission located throughout the country.
Second volume
The second part of the Register of breeding achievements allowed for use includes only breeds and species of animals for breeding in the territory of the Russian Federation. Compared to the first volume, the number of registered positions in it is much smaller. In the publication described last year, there were only 861 breeding achievements of 48 animal species. This number includes breeds, crosses, lines and types of animals.
All their units are also placed in alphabetical order. All breeds registered and bred even before the law is issued are automatically marked in the list by the year of entry 1993. The register also contains information on the category of the animal, its name, application number for registration, patent holder data and year of registration.
Labeling Features
Livestock raised for meat, milk or other derivatives is necessarily determined by the direction of use. Cattle are usually referred to as dairy and meat breeds, rabbits to meat, down or meat and skins, and chickens to meat, egg or meat-egg breeds. Some breeds of animals may be decorative (chickens, rabbits, horses and so on).
In this edition, breeds protected by certificates for breeding achievements are marked with the ® symbol, which appears in the very first column before the application number. Those breeds that are protected by the document, but do not have the right to use, are listed in a separate list, which can be found in the application. Each breed included in the list necessarily has a detailed description of appearance, history of breeding and originator data.
Use of rocks
The exclusive right to any use of animals included in the register is reserved only to patent holders. To obtain the right to work with breeding material to other persons, it is required to issue an appropriate license from the copyright holder.
You can register in the register a representative of absolutely any zoological species, which confirms the presence in the list of fish, minks, Arctic foxes, bees and even foxes.
The list of registered positions is also reviewed annually, but as a percentage of the total number, the changes are insignificant. Only a few dozen patents are canceled or waived. The appendices of the volume contain data on new candidates for inclusion in the main list and for exclusion from it. The right to make any changes to the list also has the Federal State Institution.
Registration of authority for a selection achievement
Only the presence of an animal breed in the state list gives the right to breed, sell, import into the country and any other use. In order to obtain these powers, it is necessary to draw up the relevant agreement described in the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On approval of the Rules for state registration of agreements on the disposal of the exclusive right to selective achievement and transfer of such a right without an agreement.” You can also familiarize yourself with the conditions that make it possible to obtain an exclusive right and without drafting such a document.
In addition, the resolution clearly indicates that agreements on exclusive mortgage, transfer to other persons and alienation from it are subject to mandatory federal registration.
Conclusion
So, a selection achievement is not just a bred new species of plant or animal, but a necessarily registered right to it. To get it, it is not enough just to cross two different dogs, you also need to prove to the commission that the result of such work is really useful and has certain distinguishing features.
With plants, this is much simpler, therefore, the list described in the first volume is very wide and updated every year. The possible benefits of agricultural animal breeds have long been almost completely extracted, so new registered species appear very rarely.
The state register allows you to control the quality of the described plants and guarantee the result when growing them. Registration also helps to control the legality of their use in the country.