Plant breeding

Like any creation or invention relating to intellectual property, plant breeders can benefit from specific protection, The Plant Variety Certificate or PVC.

This French or European PVC guarantees their property rights for a period of 25 to 30 years, depending on the species. After this period, the varieties enter the public domain and become royalty-free.

Under this protection, breeders have the exclusive right to produce, package, sell and export the propagating material of their varieties.

Depending on the type of marketing, they can use their varieties by:

•    producing and marketing themselves all the seeds or plants necessary for the market,
•    granting licence agreements to seed and plant companies which supply farmers. The counterpart of this licence is the royalty, which is included in the final price of seed and plants.

In the case of authorised self-production of farm-saved seed by a farmer, a compensatory remuneration must be paid to the breeders concerned.

Sicasov is in charge of the management and defence of breeder rights and collects on their behalf these royalties and remunerations, contributing to the momentum essential to the financing of research.