Plant Variety Intellectual Property Protection

There are more forms of intellectual property protection for plants and plant materials in the United States than any other country. The U.S. laws for plant-based I.P. include:

• Plant Variety Protection Certificates
• Plant Patents
• Utility Patents

These protections have fueled great innovation in American agriculture and horticulture. The vast majority of our fruits, vegetables, grains, and even ornamental plants, are the result of years of breeding and selection. Improvements in yield, size, shape, taste, shelf-life, disease resistance, time to maturity, and many other desirable characteristics have been driven by intellectual property protections that allow the inventor to recoup research investments.

Plant-based I.P. is also some of the most difficult to protect. A new plant variety that took years, or even decades, to develop, can be easily reproduced on a large scale. Unlike other inventions which may require expensive machinery, scientific expertise, or industrial manufacturing, plant inventions only need sun, soil, and water to produce. Put another way, plant I.P. can be lost quite easily.

Since 1998 we’ve been helping plant breeders, seed companies, nurseries, universities, and others protect, license and enforce their valuable intellectual property rights in plant materials. With plant-based I.P., there is no one-size-fits-all solution. We have decades of experience protecting all kinds of crops. Let us help you protect and commercialize your new varieties.