On July 14, 2026, Congressmen McGovern and Casar introduced the “Fair Seeds For Farmers Act” in the House of Representatives.  A companion bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate.  Notably, while the bill’s name and related press releases focus on seed crops, the proposed changes would affect all plant types, including asexually reproduced varieties.

The bill, which is only a few paragraphs long (full text here), seeks to amend current patent law (Leahy-Smith America Invents Act) by adding a new section entitled “Limitation on Intellectual Property Protection for Plants.”  That section would limit the ability to protect novel plant varieties in two ways. 

First, it would make utility patent protection unavailable for any plant, plant variety, or plant germplasm.  Utility patents have become an effective IP tool for both the seed/agriculture and asexual/horticulture sectors, and this proposed bill would remove that tool from their IP toolboxes.  Since utility patents provide the broadest form of protection over “downstream” varieties produced using a protected variety (i.e., a new variety developed using the protected variety as a parent or starting material for genetic editing/modification), this would have a significant impact on breeders’ ability to protect against competitors’ use of their novel varieties in breeding programs.  (Importantly, the proposed bill would leave in place Plant Patent and Plant Variety Protection (PVP) options.  Thus, seed reproduced crops would be limited to PVP protection, while asexually reproduced varieties would have both of these other options available.) 

Second, the bill would create a prohibition against any contractual obligation or agreement “that limits the use of a plant, plant variety, plant germplasm, or other biological material for research, breeding, experimentation, seed saving, or propagation.”  This would greatly limit breeders’ ability to protect against licensees’ use of protected varieties in a manner that is contrary to the intended, licensed use.

This is merely a bill that has been introduced at this time, so there are many steps that must take place before this can become law.  However, it is a situation worth monitoring for anyone involved in plant IP, and we will certainly be doing so.