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WEBINAR: EU's push for strong Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on seeds

The European Union's (EU) foreign trade policy has many implications for the sustainability of food systems in developing countries, heavily impacting farmers, breeders, and citizens. The unhidden promotion by the EU of strong intellectual property rights on plants affects food systems from its very basis, i.e., the seeds that are available for farmers to grow. Amongst these intellectual property rights, the main instrument that is advocated by European authorities is the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention, which provides exclusive rights to breeders over the propagating material of new plant varieties, while diminishing the rights of others to use the material for further breeding and hampering with the rights of farmers to freely save, use, exchange and sell their seeds.

This webinar, organised jointly by APBREBES and Both ENDS, will analyse how the EU is pushing for strong intellectual property rights, especially the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention in their trade policy, and discuss the impacts of such policy. It will present and discuss the associations' recent joint publication on "Plant variety protection & UPOV 1991 in the EU's Trade Policy: rationale, effects & state of play", available in English and Spanish, as well as a shorter brief on "the EU's push for IPR on seeds in developing countries", available in English, French, and Spanish.

The webinar will be held in English, with interpretation to Spanish and French. Please registrate via this link before the 7th of December 2021.

For more information