Intellectual Property Protection to Plant Varieties: Issues in Transgenic Cotton Cultivation

As Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights have been extended to agriculture, member countries are forced to provide intellectual property protection to plant varieties. As a member country, India has also passed the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Bill, 2001. A significant feature of this Bill is that protection is extended not only to new varieties but also to extant varieties, farmers’ varieties and essentially derived varieties. [GIDR WP No. 136].Intellectual Property Rights, Plant Protection, Seed Policy, Transgenic Cotton