COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 25 April 1983)

Earl Ferrers

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 1. Subsection (1) of Clause 3 of this Bill provides that, when considering applications for compulsory licences from someone who is aggrieved at the refusal of a breeder to issue an acceptable licence, the Controller of Plant Variety Rights "shall endeavour to secure", among other things, that, where there is an export market for a plant variety, it "is supplied from the production of the variety in Great Britain". This wording was designed to take account of the increasing tendency of some foreign holders of plant breeders' rights in the United Kingdom to impose severe restrictions on the export of seed of their varieties from this country in order to protect their domestic seed producers.

Since your Lordships last considered the Bill, representatives of the United Kingdom plant breeding industry have expressed concern that the wording in the Bill could disturb the long established practice in the industry whereby a breeder, who hopes to sell a new variety in a foreign country, helps his agent there to launch the variety by temporarily restricting the issue of licences for the export of seed by other people to that country. They complained, with some justification, that the effect of the amendment would be to oblige the controller to grant a compulsory licence to any applicant who could demonstrate the existence of an export market for a variety.

This was not the intention of the original amendment. To meet the industry's concerns this new amendment alters the wording of Section 7(3) of the 1964 Act from "endeavour to secure" to "have regard to the desirability of securing", in order to allow the controller to have greater flexibility. This change is welcomed by the industry, and it meets the Government's objectives, too. I commend it to your Lordships. I beg to move.