In Canada, plant breeders’ rights are a form of intellectual property under the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act of 1990. The intent of the 1990 act was to encourage plant breeding in Canada by strengthening the protections for new varieties of plants and to provide Canada with better access to foreign varieties.

An owner of a candidate variety is eligible for plant breeders’ rights under the 1990 act if it can be demonstrated that the candidate variety is...

Originally published in law360 on March 11, 2015.