To be presented on Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Developing new plant varieties is typically a time-consuming, resource-heavy endeavor.  Intellectual property (IP) rights are the primary tool that ensures that breeders are rewarded for their hard work.  However, the plant IP landscape is complex, especially within the U.S., due to the fact that there are multiple options available with differing, but overlapping, scopes.  This session will discuss the different types of IP available for new plant varieties (patents, plant variety protection, trademarks), how to determine which IP rights may be more useful in a particular scenario, and how to monetize those rights through licensing.  In this session, we will have a practical discussion on the types of intellectual property available for novel plant varieties and strategies for licensing those IP rights to propagators, growers, and nurseries.  This session will also explore the FTO impact that a competitor’s IP rights may have, depending on the type of variety rights at play and the location of the activity at issue.

1.0 GA, NC, PA CLE – Approved
1.0 DE, VA CLE – Will Apply