Patents and evolution of the Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBRs)

Patents and Plant Variety Certificates (PBRs) are two intellectual property regimes that can be applied to the same plants. While a patent may relate to genetic information or biological material in a plant, a PBR takes into account the visible characteristics of the plant as a whole. But plans to give greater weight to certain genetic descriptors in order to obtain a PBR are bringing the latter closer to the patent, a sort of hybrid system for the well-being of seed companies, but not farmers.