International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV)
After the ROK’s accession to the OECD, the ROK became the 50th member of UPOV in 2002 as the path to WTO-TRIPs compliance. UPOV provides intellectual property rights protection for plant breeders. In 2016, the organization plans to work on systems to facilitate breeders’ applications for new varieties.
The Secretariat of UPOV and member countries work together and try to integrate laws, policies and technologies related to application examination and cultivation experiment among countries. In addition, UPOV works for joint development of Test Guidelines (TG) for application examination, utilizing Plant Variety Protection (PVP), and supports countries wish to adopt the Plant Variety Protection Act.
In close cooperation with UPOV, the National Forest Seed Variety Center plans to participate in revising or amending international rules and developing TG, thereby enhancing protection against domestic growers and breeding value.
International Cooperation of the National Forest Seed Variety Center
- FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA)
- The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA)
- UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
- Nagoya Protocol By engaging in CBD-ABS (Nagoya Protocol), the National Forest Seed Variety Center will reaffirm the sovereign right over the natural resources while elevate their international value.