Objectives of Day Three

1. Objectives of Day Three To outline common and related issues of relevance that arise under access, benefit sharing, intellectual property rights, the rights of indigenous and local communities and Farmers’ Rights To develop a common understanding of scientific matters and terminology – as they relate to policy matters – in order to lay the foundation for a more detailed consideration and understanding of policies/laws To discuss the meaning of sui generis protection of plant varieties (UPOV is one such system) To share experiences of patent protection of plant varieties

2. Objectives of Day Three(continued) To explain how a sui generis system for plant variety protection may relate to other policy and legal issues of relevance to GRFA (such as protection of the innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities, and elaboration of Farmer’s Rights). To outline UPOV’s main provisions and some foreshadowing of the later discussions on the main differences between plant varietal protection and patent protection.

3. Schedule of Day Three 08:30 – 09:00 Opening of the Day’s Activities 09:00 – 10:30 Session 4. Cross-cutting Issues 10:45 – 13:00 Session 5. Centres of Origin, Distribution, Interdependence & Value14:00 – 15:30 Session 6. The TRIPS Agreement and UPOV 15:45 – 17:15 Session 6. (Continued) 17:15 – 17:30 Feedback on the Day’s Activities/PAPA Tea/Coffee Break Lunch Tea/Coffee Break

4. To outline common and related issues of relevance that arise under access, benefit sharing, intellectual property rights, the rights of indigenous and local communities and Farmers’ Rights Objective of Session 4

5. Interrelationships • GR professionals need to be familiar with the key issues arising from these instruments in general and how they link or potentially may link across instruments and institutions • The interrelationship between issues such as Farmers’ Rights, the rights of indigenous and local communities, intellectual property rights, conservation of genetic resources, access to genetic resources and benefit sharing from the use of genetic resources challenges the kind of neat presentation and analysis that would be useful to decision-makers

6. National Policy and Law Intellectual property rights and ABS mechanisms Intellectual property rights and indigenous and local communities ABS mechanisms and indigenous and local communities MLS and Farmers’ Rights; patents and plant variety protection

7. International Policy and Law • GR professional must be aware of the evolution of the international “regime”and their relationship between its components – treaties, national laws, policies, etc. • Treaties can also belong to different areas of international law, such as environmental law and trade law • Access to biological material is addressed by instruments such as the CBD and the IT, and access to breeding results and genetic innovations are usually regulated by IP instruments such as the national regimes established pursuant to the TRIPS Agreement or UPOV

8. Dealing with Intellectual Property Rights • A matter of debate • The CBD is ambiguous on its relationship to IPRs but it is clear that they should be supportive of and not run counter to the Convention’s objectives • GR professionals should aim to manage intellectual property in a manner that is in line with national objectives and supportive of the CBD • Another area where property rights arise is in participatory plant breeding

9. Benefit sharing • CBD • IT: The Multilateral System • IT: Farmers’ Rights

10. CBD • Issues of equity and benefit-sharing are the common threads underlying most of the cross-cutting issues • Benefit sharing is one of the CBD's three objectives and is explicitly and implicitly reinforced throughout the treaty's provisions • In the context of access, intellectual property rights, traditional knowledge, the issue of how benefits will be generated, to whom the benefits will flow and what constitutes benefits continue to be subject to considerable debate • These issues are also at the heart of the debate on the relationship between the CBD and TRIPS

11. IT: The Multilateral System • Benefit sharing is a major topic of debate in the context of the IT • The Treaty’s article on benefit sharing recognizes that access itself is a major benefit of the Multilateral System, and states that benefits arising from the use of PGRFA under the Multilateral System should be shared fairly and equitably through a number of mechanisms, both voluntary and mandatory in nature • IT encourages the transfer of technologies, including those that are essentially “embedded” in genetic materials • Patenting will trigger the benefit sharing mechanism; plant breeders’ rights will not