Intellectual Property Rights and Plant Variety Protection of Horticultural Crops: Evidence from Canada

Total horticultural farm cash receipts were Can $8.6 billion in Canada in 2014. Horticultural crops have dominated the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office (PBRO) application submissions. In this paper we examine firstly the application pattern of plant breeders’ rights (PBR) for horticultural crops following the enactment of the Canadian Plant Breeders’ Rights Act (PBRA) in 1990. Secondly, we assess whether stronger intellectual property rights (IPR) are needed to boost plant variety development. Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) plant breeders’ rights applications and grants data from 1992 to 2014 are employed to examine how PBR applications by public and private institutions have evolved in response to reduction in R funding for horticultural crop research by Canadian public institutions and changes to plant variety protection policy. We show that the bulk of PBR applications are for ornamental crops (followed by vegetables, and fruits) involving mostly ‘rose’ and ‘pelargonium’ and originate from European and U.S. corporations. Agriculture and Agri-Food (AAFC) accounted for 35% and 53% of the total apple and cherry applications, respectively. Since 2005, applications for ornamental varieties have declined suggesting the perception of a weak intellectual property protection environment. The PBR system allows farm-saved seed or propagating material use, while plant breeders can use germplasm material in new line breeding activities. Stronger IPR and royalty collection systems may promote greater private plant breeding and commercialization of new varieties for the heterogeneous Canadian horticultural crop industry.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author