Under current law, Federal protection of the intellectual proper- 

 ty rights that arise from plant breeding is available in the United 

 States in three forms: plant patents, plant variety protection, and 

 utility patents. Parental lines of crops normally sold as hybrids, 

 such as corn and sunflowers, are protected as trade secrets under 

 state contract law. 



Prior to 1930, plant breeding and research depended on federally 

 funded agricultural experiment stations and the limited endeavors 

 of private plant breeders to develop new varieties. Financial incen- 

 tives to the private sector were inadequate to recover research and 

 development costs. Indeed, the only opportunity for cost recovery 

 was in the initial sales of the varieties, since purchasers could 

 freely propagate the variety once it was released to the public. 



To address this shortcoming and to encourage private investment 

 in plant development, asexually reproduced plants were the first to 

 receive protection with enactment of the Plant Patent Act of 1930. 

 Because of doubts about whether sexually reproduced plants could 

 breed true to type, sexually reproduced varieties continued to be 

 bred primarily at public institutions and released without protec- 

 tion. All profits were determined by the initial sales of the seed. 



Two developments subsequently led to the enactment of the 

 Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) and its protection for sexual- 

 ly reproduced varieties. First was eventual acceptance of the notion 

 that sexually reproduced varieties would breed true to type. Second 

 was the formation, in 1960 by several European countries, of the 

 International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants 

 (UPOV). 



The PVPA was enacted in 1970, first to provide economic incen- 

 tives for companies to undertake the costs and risks inherent in 

 producing new varieties, and secondly, to alleviate the competitive 

 disadvantage that American agriculture and breeders face because 

 European countries offered protection under UPOV. 



In the original effort to protect plant breeders' rights, Congress 

 intended "To encourage the development of novel varieties of sexu- 

 ally reproduced plants and to make them available to the public, 

 providing protection to those who breed, develop, or discover them, 

 and thereby promoting progress in agriculture in the public inter- 

 est." The success of the PVPA can be judged from the increase in 

 private sector research and development on plant breeding and the 

 success of modern varieties. 



For example, increases in crop yields since enactment of PVPA 

 for major commodities range from 7 percent for alfalfa to 35 per- 

 cent for cotton. According to USDA estimates, approximately 60 

 percent of the increase can be attributed to improvements in plant 

 breeding. At the end of fiscal year 1992, nearly 3,000 plant variety 

 protection "certificates" were in force and 325 are expected to be 

 issued in 1993. 



While similar in its intent of providing incentive and protection 

 to inventors, the PVPA differs from the Patent and Trademark Act 

 in a number of ways: the legal standards for protection are less 

 stringent; administration is through the Department of Agriculture 

 rather than the Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark 

 office; and exemptions allow the use of protected varieties in the 

 development of new varieties and permit individual farmers to 



