How society benefits from seed patents
Global
Agriculture
Your Phone, Your Car, Your Onion: Why Patents on Seeds Make Sense
For most people, a sophisticated machine sketch or a tricky chemical process design comes to mind when thinking about patents. But patents span many different industries and can even be granted for plants. Like your phone or your car, plant varieties are the result of many years of research and investment that are protected by legal rights like patents.
To Ena Hartig, patents are more than legal documents or rights. “Patents protect the work and investment that has gone into breeding and are an important motivation for any company to invest in research,” she explains. Ena oversees Research and Development for BASF’s vegetable seeds business, which develops new varieties of onions, tomatoes, and watermelons to name a few.
These aren’t ordinary vegetables. Her team develops plant-based inventions that address major trends emerging in society: think climate crisis, food waste, or food security.
How society benefits from seed patents
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Affordable, healthy food
Clean water
Help end hunger
Safer food
Reduced crop protection
Soil health
Enhanced biodiversity
Without patents, we would not have seen many of the greatest innovations that have answered mankind’s major challenges.
Breeders at BASF’s vegetable seeds business develop traits that allow a plant to cope with climate change or reduce food waste, for example by extending the shelf-life of vegetables. They breed new vegetable varieties that are resistant to certain diseases or can better withstand stresses that reduce farmers’ yields - which would eventually threaten the sufficient supply of healthy and affordable food for our growing population.
How do farmers benefit from seed patents?
Hover your mouse over the images to see the benefits.
How do farmers benefit from seed patents?
A plant belongs to nature - how can it be patented?
Patents are not granted for wild, naturally occurring flowers or trees that you admire during a summer stroll. Patents are granted for a breakthrough result that has never existed before thanks to years of intentional and careful plant breeding.
With a patent, the inventing party can manage the use of their invention, for example preventing its use by others or permitting contracted use. If other companies could immediately copy the invention and offer their own products based on it, this would significantly bring down the return for future investments by the innovative company. And there are limits to patent protections: they expire after a certain period of time, usually after 20 years.
Patents fuel the innovation cycle
“When we file for patent protection, we have to disclose the invention in such a way that it can be repeated by others,” explains Maurice Vroemen, a patent attorney with BASF’s vegetable seeds business.
“Patents stimulate scientific progress by allowing others to learn from the invention so that it can be improved, or alternatives developed, instead of reinventing the wheel,” points out Maurice. In this case, further research progress on the topic in question can be carried out by other companies, universities, or research institutions. “Patents provide that incentive to publish the invention rather than keep it secret.”
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Patenting provides an incentive to publish the invention rather than keep it secret.
In addition, companies can grant licenses to allow other industry players to work with their patented inventions. Maurice says: “We license out many of the traits that we have developed to other seed companies. This leads to more progress and faster development of novel varieties that farmers and consumers want and need.”
Find out more in our FAQ section about how patented seed innovations are made available for use by others, for example through the International Licensing Platform (ILP) Vegetable and the Agricultural Crops Licensing Platform (ACLP).
Patents on your plate
Apart from patented plant features that benefit farmers and make agriculture more resilient and sustainable, plant innovations also appeal to consumers, such as seedless watermelons, tastier tomatoes, or even a tearless onion.
The origin story of the tearless onion starts in the 1980s when people were preparing more and more dishes that featured fresh onions. In-season onions were enjoyed for their mild flavor, however, when stored during the winter, onions become more pungent and less appealing to serve fresh. The idea was to create an onion that remained mild during those winter storage months.
After decades of breeding efforts, the team succeeded in creating a variety that was not only mild and sweet but had another benefit: no tears!
Sunions®, the first tearless onion, was developed completely through traditional breeding and selection. And the funds for this long-term research came from the company’s profits – safeguarded by patents.
In the same way, seed and trait patents have and continue to deliver what consumers want- be it a tearless onion or a sweeter cherry tomato, or what a farmer or smallholder needs – enough crop yield and quality to sustain their livelihoods – and, for the company that develops the innovation, it brings a return on often decades of investment.
Hover your mouse over the image to see the answer.
Sunions®, the first tearless onion, was developed completely through traditional breeding and selection. And the funds for this long-term research came from the company’s profits – safeguarded by patents.
In the same way, seed and trait patents have and continue to deliver what consumers want- be it a tearless onion or a sweeter cherry tomato, or what a farmer or smallholder needs – enough crop yield and quality to sustain their livelihoods – and, for the company that develops the innovation, it brings a return on often decades of investment.
FAQs
A patent protects technical innovations by granting the inventor an exclusive right of use and a right to prohibit others using it for a limited time in exchange for the disclosure of the invention. They are an important motivation for companies to invest in research and drivers for research results to be made public. Patents can only be granted by the relevant authorities if they meet three important criteria: the invention needs to be novel, it can’t be an obvious improvement on existing technology or know-how, and it must be useful and have a practical application. Patents can be filed by anyone – individuals, small businesses, academic institutions, and large corporations. The term of a patent typically is at most 20 years from the filing date, after which the invention can be freely used by anyone.
Patents and similar legal frameworks safeguard our seed innovations, ensuring exclusive rights. This protection is crucial as the efforts from research and development can take a decade or more before a seed product is launched. Patents are not issued for naturally occurring plant characteristics, but ones that are that are novel, like those resulting from years of R&D and breeding efforts. Patents incentivize the sustained investment in research needed for groundbreaking agricultural solutions.
Seed patents are a widely discussed topic amongst both those who are against the patenting of “nature” or living organisms, such as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and those who uphold patents as a way to ensure the continued development of new genetics and plant traits that are equally beneficial for smallholder farmers.
For smallholders, investment in seed is one of the most important decisions that they will make in a year and one on which their financial security hinges. For this reason, many make the decision that they want to buy seed with the most protection – typically from pests, disease and drought, and potential – the crop’s yield and quality, as well as the crop’s suitability to the local end market.
As a business that invests significantly in research and development in the plant breeding sector, we do so with a deep sense of responsibility towards the farmers and smallholders growing our seed.
The International Licensing Platform (ILP) Vegetable and the Agricultural Crops Licensing Platform (ACLP) are two organizations that make commercialized and patented seed innovations available to the industry. Each was founded by various seed and breeding companies, including BASF Agricultural Solutions, to provide efficient and transparent access to new innovative breeding material for vegetable or field crop seeds, respectively. Access to new innovative breeding material is key for plant breeders and essential to contribute to a more sustainable food system as part of the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy. Plant breeding was responsible for 65% of the annual crop productivity growth in the EU in the last 20 Years (Source: HFFA Research GmbH study“The socio-economic and environmental value of plant breeding in the EU, specifically considering the EU’s “From Farm to Fork” and “Biodiversity” strategies”, May 2021).
Plant Breeder's Rights (PBRs) are a parallel legal framework to patents that serve as an efficient way to protect innovations and the investments that drive them, as well as encourage the development of new plant varieties that benefit farmers. PBRs specifically protect the breeder's right to control the commercial use of a new variety. At BASF, we use both PBRs and patents, depending on what best aligns with the nature of the innovation. This dual approach ensures research and development investments in innovations are protected, and a dynamic and resilient environment for agricultural advancement is fostered. Source: UPOV
Published December 11, 2023 by Katie Lelito and Kaya Schmitz (BASF Agricultural Solutions)
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Julian Prade
