Law of Plant Varieties Protection

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Description
India is basically an agricultural country and the vast majority of its people are farmers. Earlier, our country did not provide any kind of intellectual property protection to plant varieties. Being a signatory to the TRIPs Agreement, India was obliged to provide either a patent protection or an effective sui generis system of proteotion to plant varieties. The Plant Varieties Protection and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001 of India was passed in order to conform to the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement The Act is a unique piece of legislation and is the first amongst the various legislations that provide protection to farmers, In this era of biotechnological advances, I feel the subject of plant variety protection has assumed immense significance. At the time of my research on the title of Plant Variety Protection in the context of the TRIP Agreement, India had not legislated the sui generis legislation and there was a dearth of material in libraries and archives. It was actually this lack of material on the subject that prompted and inspired me to author this book Effort has been made to present a well-referenced and compact volume of all material essential for practice in the Courts and before the Registrar. The book also aims to inform the readers of the means of obtaining protection The work has been structured to meet the requirements of the legal fraternity,  reeders, farming community and academicians. The book has also dealt with the case law from the Plant Variety Protection Offices and also the Courts in various countries like Australia. Care has been taken to incorporate up to date case law which will prove useful in the context of analyzing the provisions of the Indian Plant Variety Protection Act. It is hoped that this work will prove useful as a source book for plant variety protection laws in Europe, United States and India. The practicing lawyer  engaged in applying these may find guidance in these pages. The exhaustive subject-index will help to find out quickly the relevant portions in the text.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 : Introduction
► Importance of Plant Breeding
► Need for Protection
► Distinct features of Plant Kingdom
► Patents versus Plant Variety Protection
► Effects of Plant Variety Protection
Chapter 2 : Protection in Euope
► European Patent Convention
► Order Public or Morality
► Plant Variety
► Directive on the Legal Protection of Biotechnological
     Inventions
     Provisions of the Directive
► Community Plant Variety Rights
     Applying for Protection
     Prerogatives of the Rights Holder
     Infringement
     Jurisdiction
Chapter 3 : Legal System in United Tates
► Plant Patent Act
     Infringement of Plant Patent
► Utility Patents for Plants
      Enabling disclosure
     Deposit of Biological Material
► Plant Variety Protection Act
     Infringement
► Plant Patent Act versus Plant Variety Protection Act:
     Differences
Chapter 4 : Plant Varieties Protection and Farmers' Rights in India
► Tracing History
► Varieties covered by protection
► Essentially Derived Variety
► Conditions for Protection
► Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority
► Plant Varieties Registry
► Registration of Plant Varieties
► Rights on Registration
► Exclusions to Registration
► Terminator and Verminator Technologies
► Farmers' Rights
► Research Exemption - Breeders' Privilege
► Traditional Knowledge
► Benefit Sharing
► Jeevani - The Miracle Drug
► Benefit Sharing and Biological Diversity Act, 2002
► Compulsory Licence
► Plant Varieties Protection Appellate Tribunal
► Infringement
► Remedies for Infringement
Chapter 5 : International Legal Framwork
► UPOV Convention
     Meaning of Variety
     Rights of Breeder
     Breeders' Privilege
     Essentially Derived Varieties
     Conditions for grant of breeders' right
► International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
► Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement
► Convention on Biological Diversity
► TRIPs and Convention on Biological Diversity
ANNEXURES
1. Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Right Act, 2001
2. Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Right Rules, 2003
3. Biological Diversity Act, 2002
4. Biological Diversity Rules, 2004
5. Subject Index
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Author Details
Dr, Elizabeth Verkey, Advocate, Advocate, High Court of Kerala, Visiting Faculty, School of Indian
Legal Thought, Maharama Gandhi University, Kottayam Formerly Visiting Research Fellow, 
The AHRB Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law, the University of
Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland 
Foreword by
 Justice. Balakrishnan, Chief Justice of India