Fair and Equitable Exceptions for Farming Practice in Plant IPR Protection in Taiwan

172-184Given that the need for food, the adaptation for climate change and the cure for diseases are crucial challenges of the 21st century, the acceleration of breeding new plant varieties to address these challenges is therefore regarded as an effective way to address these issues. The emphasis on plant research and development makes intellectual property rights (IPR) protection for plants a hot issue. Although, there are already laws and regulations in place to offer intellectual property protection for new plant varieties, the exemptions of IPR for researchers and farmers are inequitable. The scope of exemptions defined by patent or plant variety rights in some major countries serve as good references for improving the domestic regulation in Taiwan. Historically, from the narrowest US system to the fairest European one, such exemptions have already impacted the Taiwanese IPR system. Currently, as review of the Taiwanese ‘Plant Variety and Seedling Act (PVSA)’ is in process, deliberation upon a sustainable IPR system is necessary. This paper proposes the introduction of mechanisms such as proportional reward to breeders/farmers of merit for innovative application of research results, discounted royalty payment for conduction of preliminary research, and broader exemption for negligence of the third party. By means of such system reform in plant IPR protection, hopefully a better environment for plant breeding research and agricultural growing may be anticipated