Читать книгу Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding - George Acquaah - Страница 91

In the US, land grant institutions were established to promote and advance agricultural growth and productivity of the states, among other roles. Much of the efforts of researchers are put in the public domain for free access. The Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970, which provided intellectual property rights to plant breeders, was the major impetus for the proliferation of for‐profit private seed companies, and their domination of the more profitable aspects of the seed market where legal protection and enforcement were clearer and more enforceable (e.g. hybrid seed). Plant breeders' rights legislation was implemented in the 1960s and 1970s in most of Western Europe. Australia and Canada adopted similar legislations much later, in the 1990s. The US Supreme Court ruled in 1980 to allow utility patent protection to be applied to living things. This protection was extended to plants in 1985. The European Patent Office granted such protection to GM cultivars in 1999.