Newsletter

In this issue: Reform backlog – APBREBES Report on the UPOV Spring Session 2023 -- Fewer Choices for Farmers? The Impact of IP on Seeds in the US -- The European Court of Justice protects farmers from excessive compensation for farm-saved seeds -- The implications of UNDROP for the right to seeds in Africa – and a Sustainable World Food System -- How policies influence smallholder farmers’ access to seeds in East Africa -- The impact of Plant Breeders’ Rights in Costa Rica

New Study by APBREBES and the South Centre: The UPOV accession process - Preventing appropriate PVP laws for new members

The study "The UPOV accession process: Preventing appropriate PVP laws for new members", published today by the South Centre and APBREBES, analyses the accession process for countries that want to become members of UPOV and provides both surprising and worrying results.

In this issue: Concentration and IPRs in the Seed Industry: a View From the USA -- Sentence by the Supreme Court of Honduras, declaring the PVP Law unconstitutional -- A critical appraisal of farmers' rights in the plant variety protection law of Bangladesh -- In defense of farmer-saved seeds Current developments in seed laws harmonization in Africa -- Strengths and weaknesses of organized crop seed production by smallholder farmers: A five-country case study -- From Financing Organic Plant Breeding-New Economic Models for Seed as a Commons

In this issue: APBREBES Report on the 2022 UPOV Session -- Seed Activism: Patent Politics and Litigation in the Global South -- The Intellectual Property Protection for Plant Related Innovation - Fit for Future -- In defense of farmer saved seeds -- Food Barons 2022: Crisis Profiteering, Digitalization and Shifting Power -- From land enclosures to lab enclosures: digital sequence information, cultivated biodiversity and the movement for open source seed systems

In this issue: Implementing the International Treaty (ITPGRFA) in light of UNDROP -- Farmers, Seeds & the Laws: Importing the Chilling Effect Doctrine -- The Interface between Plant Variety Protection and Food Security: An Indian Experience -- Protection and Restriction of Grain-Related IP Rights in the Context of Food Security

In this issue: Civil society calls upon the EU and Indonesia to respect the rights of Indonesian famers -- Tensions between ontological, legal, and political systems imbue the PVP Bill in New Zealand -- Colonial pathways for agrobiotechnological accumulation -- How the commons-based seed sector promotes resilience in agriculture -- Social practices of urban community seed sharing initiatives for just transitions to sustainability -- Moving towards rights-based agriculture policy in Canada

In this issue: The Supreme Court of Honduras declares the plant variety protection law based on UPOV unconstitutional -- New Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food puts seeds at the centre -- New policy paper by FIAN: Time for human rights-based seed policies -- Victory for farmer seed rights in India: PepsiCo’s IPR on potato variety revoked -- Book tip: Seeds for Diversity and Inclusion

In this issue: New Research Paper: Plant variety protection & UPOV 1991 in the European Union’s Trade Policy: Rationale, effects & state of play -- Webinar invitation: The EU's push for IPRs on seeds in developing countries -- Food Sovereignty Ghana goes to Supreme Court over UPOV Convention -- UPOV Meeting Report -- APBREBES map of UPOV member countries

In this special issue: New APBREBES Study – Invitation to a Webinar
“Searching for flexibility - Why parties to the 1978 Act of the UPOV Convention have not acceded to the 1991 Act”
Today, APBREBES is publishing a new study “Searching for flexibility - Why parties to the 1978 Act of the UPOV Convention have not acceded to the 1991 Act”, authored by Karine Peschard, Research Associate at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.

In this issue: Opposition against the new Plant Variety Protection Law is rising in Nigeria. The constitutionality of the law is challenged in court -- A critical look at West Africa's regional IP and trade regime -- Seed as a commons — A Symposium exploring innovative concepts and practices of governing seed and varieties -- Farmers’ Rights and Digital Sequence Information: Crisis or Opportunity to Reclaim Stewardship Over Agrobiodiversity?