MANU/AGRL/0024/2016

Ministry : Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

Department/Board : Agriculture, Co-operation and Farmers Welfare

Notification No. : SO1813(E)

Date of Notification : 18.05.2016

Date of Publication : 18.05.2016

Industry: Agriculture and Agro Products

Licensing and Formats for GM Technology Agreement Guidelines, 2016

S.O.1813(E).--Whereas, in order to provide an effective system for fixation of maximum sale price of cotton seeds to ensure their availability to the cotton farmers at uniform as well as fair, reasonable and affordable prices, the Central Government, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 (10 of 1955) made the Cotton Seeds Price (Control) Order, 2015 (hereafter to referred to as the Order);

And whereas, in India intellectual property rights for innovation are provided under the Patents Act, 1970 (39 of 1970) and the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act 2001 (53 of 2001) apart from others and the patent protection is provided for any inventions, whether products or processes in all fields of biotechnology, provided that there is the involvement of novelty and an inventive step and are capable of industrial applications;

And whereas, section 3 of the Patents Act, 1970 excludes a method of agriculture or horticulture and plants and animals in whole or any part thereof other than microorganisms but including seeds, varieties and species and essentially biological processes for production or propagation of plants and animals from the inventions;

And whereas, even though biotechnology inventions are patentable, once the GM Traits developed through biotechnology are transferred into a variety ("transgenic variety"), the transgenic variety per se cannot be patented; the seeds carrying such trait also cannot be patented and hence, the plant varieties including transgenic varieties carrying the GM Traits can be protected only under the Protection of Plant varieties and Farmer's Rights Act, 2001.

And whereas, the transgenic varieties become the intellectual property of the breeder or company who has developed it;

And whereas, based on the existing intellectual property rights regime for biotechnology, plants and varieties in the seed industry, it is felt necessary to prescribe the licensing guidelines so that all seed ........