Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
have a common name, say, 'Maltster'. Unless there is
some unfortunate problem such as a cultivar has mis-
takenly been allowed a duplicate name, it is difficult to
change the name after release.
Hybrid cultivars are often given a number code
rather than a recognizable name. In such cases the
number code has a prefix which identifies the company
responsible for its development.
In choosing names it is useful to select ones that are
easy to remember and convey, if possible, the right
image (e.g. 'Star', 'Golden Supreme' or 'Bountiful').
Equally it is obviously wise to avoid names that are
obviously inappropriate such as 'Usually Dies', 'No
profit' etc.
Another point to bear in mind is, if a cultivar is to
be marketed in a foreign country or in an area where
a second language is common, then it is important to
check that the cultivar name does not have an unfortu-
nate meaning in the other language, that it does have a
desired image in that language and that it be easily pro-
nounced. For example, there is no 'w' in the Spanish
language alphabet so it would be unwise to call the cul-
tivar 'Wally's Wonder' if it is to be commercialized in a
Spanish speaking country, such as Spain or Mexico.
Variety Rights
(PVR) in some other countries. Also, in
the United States, when a clonal crop, or other asexually
propagated crop cultivar is released then protection can
be obtained by
Plant Patent
(PP).
In each case PVP, PVR or PP allows the developers
of a new cultivar to control how much, where and who
has the right to grow and sell the proprietary cultivar.
It is as well to be aware of the information that is
required to submit an application for either protection
type, before starting out on the trialling and selection
procedures!
Patents
In fact there is a much more general consideration of
patents as they affect plant breeding which has recently
become a major consideration in a number of ways. For
example, it is possible to patent DNA sequences if they
have a known function, it is possible to patent processes
and methodologies, so for example tissue culture proto-
cols or transformation methods. There are basic criteria
that apply to patent applications but in essence you
can apply for a patent if the 'invention' is not patented
already, you can demonstrate a significant novel step and
it is 'not obvious'. Clearly these have definitions attached
to them but nevertheless this underlies the main prin-
ciples. So increasingly, if researchers make any sort of
breakthrough they will tend to consider patenting to
protect their Intellectual Property (IP). In other words
they can potentially make money from exploiting that
technology either directly by exploiting it and prevent-
ing others from doing so or indirectly by licensing others
to allow them to use the technology, perhaps from roy-
alties. This affects quite a number of protocols related to
plant breeding - particularly related to biotechnology
and molecular biology.
The patenting of gene sequences also has rather obvi-
ous effects on the freedom to simply use particular
regions of DNA.
So you cannot, as a breeder or breeding organization,
simply carry out all tissue culture procedures including
many of the transformation protocols if you intend to
produce a commercial product. This restriction also
applies to many genes and gene constructs. If you sim-
ply carry out research there are few restrictions if you can
persuade the appropriate organization to give you the
material, but methods are fairly freely used on the basis
Cultivar protection
Several USDA breeding groups offer the cultivars they
develop, free from royalties, to the farming community
(although the seed itself still costs money to cover pro-
duction etc.) and therefore do not hold any rights on the
new varieties (in other words the cultivar can be multi-
plied and sold by others). However, it is now very com-
mon to obtain some degree of proprietary protection of
ownership on new cultivars that are released. All com-
mercial companies require proprietary ownership of the
cultivars they develop in order that they can control the
supply of seed, who can grow the crop and to obtain
either seed sales profits or royalties from seed sales.
When the cultivar produced is a hybrid, then it is
possible to have 'automatic' proprietary ownership by
simply maintaining the inbred parents that are used to
generate the hybrid seed, and not allowing access to seed
of the parents. In the end, if a cultivar is not a hybrid
then the most common method of protecting cultivars
that are propagated by seeds is to apply for
Plant Variety
Protection
(PVP), within the United States or
Plant
