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Agriculture council hopes to negotiate IPR pact with China

The Council of Agriculture is seeking talks with Chinese authorities on intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in agriculture, an official with the council's Food and Agriculture Administration said yesterday.

Noting that rampant smuggling of locally developed plant varieties and crop breeding know-how to China has caused severe damage to Taiwan's agricultural development and profitability, the official said the council urgently needs to negotiate with China for institutionalized IPR protection with regard to agriculture.

To protect the legitimate rights of local investors in crop breeding research and product development, the official said, the council has negotiated with the world's major seed trading countries on mutual acceptance of utility patent applications by their citizens for inventions in breeding technology and cultivars.

"So far, the United States, the European Union, Australia and Japan have expressed a willingness to accept Taiwanese citizens' applications for plant variety patent protection," the official said, adding that similar negotiations with the Netherlands, Israel and Canada were ongoing.

As China's counterfeiting and other IPR infringements have been a source of suffering for Taiwan's farmers, the official said, the council is keen to hold similar talks with China on mutual agricultural IPR protection.

"We need to negotiate with China under the same format to secure institutionalized IPR protection for our crop breeding researchers and product developers," the official said, adding that strong IPR protection would encourage investment.
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