UPOVsopimuksen

The UPOV Convention, formally the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, is an international treaty administered by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). It establishes a system for the protection of plant varieties, granting breeders exclusive rights over their new creations. The primary objective of the UPOV Convention is to encourage the development of new plant varieties for the benefit of society by providing plant breeders with intellectual property rights.

The Convention outlines the criteria for granting protection, which typically include novelty, distinctness, uniformity, and stability of the variety. It also specifies the scope of protection, defining the acts that require the breeder's authorization, such as the production, sale, and export of propagating material of the protected variety. Member states of the UPOV Convention are obligated to provide this protection within their territories.

There have been several revisions of the UPOV Convention, with the most recent being the 1991 Act. This Act introduced significant changes, including the extension of protection to harvested material under certain conditions and the harmonization of the definition of the breeder. The UPOV system aims to strike a balance between the rights of breeders and the public interest, promoting innovation in plant breeding while ensuring access to plant genetic resources.