Rights of PVR Owners
48. The PVRA at present provides PVR owners with the exclusive right to produce for sale, and to sell, reproductive material of their protected varieties. As noted above, these rights are relatively limited. Submissions from plant breeders indicated that they considered that enhanced rights such as those provided under Article 14 of UPOV 91 were essential to ensure continued investment in plant breeding in New Zealand.
49. Article 14 of UPOV 91 provides that PVR owners have the exclusive right to produce or reproduce, condition for the purposes of sale, offer for sale, sell, export, import, or stock for any of these purposes reproductive material of their protected varieties. These rights extend to harvested material obtained through unauthorised use of propagating material of a protected variety, to products made from such harvested material and to varieties essentially derived from a protected variety.
50. These enhanced rights will provide plant breeders with a greater incentive for increased investment in the development of inproved varieties and will also increase the incentive for overseas plant breeders to allow their new varieties to be released in New Zealand. This will help to ensure that New Zealand growers continue to have the access to the improved varieties necessary for New Zealand remain competitive on world agricultural markets.
51. I recommend that the PVRA be amended to provide that the rights of PVR owners be extended in accordance with the rights set out in Article 14 of UPOV 91.
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