63 



Statement of Kenneth C. Clayton, 



Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary 



Marketing and Inspection Services 



United States Department of Agriculture 



before the 



Subcommittee on Department Operations and Nutrition 



Committee on Agriculture 



U.S. House of Representatives 



on 



H.R. 2 927, the Plant Variety Protection Act 



Amendments of 1993 



May 24, 1994 



Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee. 

 I very much appreciate the invitation to present the 

 Administration's views on H.R. 2927, a bill to conform the Plant 

 Variety Protection Act to the articles of the 1991 Act of the 

 International Convention for the Protection of New 

 Varieties of Plants, also known as the UPOV Convention. 

 Accompanying me today are Dr. Kenneth Evans, Commissioner of the 

 Plant Variety Protection Office, and H. Dieter Hoinkes, of the 

 Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce. 



The Administration supports the enactment of H.R. 2927. 



The Administration is supportive of the effective protection 

 of all forms of intellectual property. This includes new plant 

 varieties, which are a form of invention. In the United States, 

 one effective form of protecting new plant varieties that are 

 reproduced by seed, is by means of the Plant Variety Protection 

 Act (PVPA) . To afford our plant breeders protection in other 

 countries as well, the United States became a member of the 

 International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants 

 (UPOV) . That Union was established by the UPOV Convention in 

 1961. In 1978, the UPOV Convention was revised and in 1981 the 



