Plant Variety Rights in New Zealand: Then and Now

Abstract

This seminar will discuss the changes adopted in the recent overhaul of the plant variety rights system and how they may operate once the law is fully implemented. In addition to discussing the likely impact of the new Act on plant breeding and the New Zealand economy, the seminar will consider the Act’s recognition and respect for the Crown’s obligations under the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi | the Treaty of Waitangi, particularly in relation to the realisation of tino rangatiratanga. The discussion is based on recent research involving both doctrinal analysis of the PVR Act and an intellectual property landscape analysis. This latter methodology reveals how plant variety rights systems, both within Aotearoa and overseas, have been used by entities without Māori ancestry to assert ownership claims to varieties of taonga plants in the past. The seminar will explore how some of the changes made in the PVR Act support the exercise of partial Māori authority in relation to taonga, and the limitations on realising tino rangatiratanga via the New Zealand plant variety rights system.