Intellectual Property Protection of Plant Varieties in Asian Developing Countries

Abstract

Plant varieties are widely protected by some form of intellectual property rights. Because of the differences in their national situations, developed and developing countries have adopted different policies and legal systems for this protection. Increasingly, countries have enacted plant variety protection laws to adapt to biotechnological development and agricultural economic expansion, while a few developing countries are still in the beginning stage of this process. Most developing countries in Asia have adopted some form of sui generis system¹ to protect plant varieties, but the protection generally is not effective enough. This paper presents the international legal framework as a background, studies the domestic legislative provisions in some Asian developing countries, analyzes the challenges they are facing, and gives a preview of the future development of protection for plant varieties in these countries.