“The settlement relates to unauthorized advertisements and sales of PBR-protected barley and wheat varieties,” Alliance Seed, SeCan and an unnamed seed company said in a news release Wednesday.

The settlement “includes the royalties, plus legal fees and penalties,” Todd Hyra, SeCan’s business manager for Western Canada, said in an interview.

“The first thing we do in seeking these is to cover the royalties, but it’s important to note that it’s not just ‘You get caught, you pay the fee.’ That’s not fair to the system or the industry. So many times it’s a multiple of the royalties owed so there’s a penalty in there to ensure the legitimate seed sellers are not penalized by those that only pay when they get caught.”

Why it matters: Farmers need to be aware of stronger PBR regulations that came into affect in 2015 under UPOV ’91, or risk paying significant penalties.

The farm, which hasn’t been identified, bought protected varieties and then chose to re-sell them as seed. It also provided custom seeding services using protected varieties.

“Both of those sort of fed into the infringement,” Hyra said.

The infringement took place over six years.

“It is critical that everyone in the value chain is aware of the rules,” Jim Bagshaw, general manager of Alliance Seed, said in the release.

Under current PBR rules, “not only the seller is liable for damages, but the customer and the processor — essentially everyone who played a part in the infringement. If a variety is protected by PBR it is protected, whether you call it common seed or if you call it by the variety name.”

That means farmers who buy seed from illegitimate sellers can face financial penalties too, Hyra said.

“It’s so important that customers know what the origin of their seed is,” he said. “If they want to buy a new variety and farm save it they want to be sure they are buying it from a legitimate seed seller otherwise they could be opening the door to multiples of loss if they bought some and saved it on their farm for several years.

“We want to get the word out about the importance of knowing the rules, understanding the rules and playing by them. And also it can get expensive. It’s no fun for anybody to go through and we want to try and avoid this by following the rules and agreements that are in place.”

PBR infringers are discovered when they advertise online.

“Occasionally infringers will be turned in by customers who had a falling out with their seller and realized the seller wasn’t selling them something they expected…” Hyra said.

This settlement is three times more than the previous record of around $240,000 set in 2005, he said.

Seed companies prosecute alleged infringers through civil law. This case was settled out of court and the parties made “a declaration there will be no additional unauthorized (seed) sales.”

The settlement was welcomed by Seeds Canada, which monitors for infringers and provides enforcement services to Canada’s seed sector.

This demonstrates the strength of collaborative investigations and the importance of enforcing prohibitions on illegitimate seed sales and inclusion custom seeding, Seeds Canada said in a news release Thursday.

“This news strengthens the role of Seeds Canada services,” Lorne Hadley, Seeds Canada’s director of intellectual property protection, said in the release. “We continue to work on behalf of our members and support their willingness to pursue special cases due to infringer or infringing use.”

— Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Miami, Man.

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Harvey Marcil of Pasqua Farms near Moose Jaw, Sask., has also agreed to stop making unauthorized seed sales and was expelled from SeCan’s membership, Todd Hyra, SeCan’s business manager for Western Canada, said in an interview.

The previous highest settlement for unauthorized seed sales of SeCan varieties was $120,000 in 2013.

“By enforcing (PBR) and letting people know that we’re enforcing we’re sending two messages,” Hyra said. “One is those that if they are going to infringe we’ll do our best to catch them.

“But more importantly we want to let our plant breeders know that if they are willing to invest in Canada that will do our best to support their efforts and ensure they get paid for their innovation.”

SeCan started its investigation into Marcil’s activities in January 2014. The settlement announced this week relates to unauthorized sales of two SeCan PBR-protected varieties, CDC Bethune flax and AC Strongfield durum.

What makes the breach even more troublesome is that Marcil is a seed grower and was a SeCan member, Hyra said.

“When someone has demonstrated they know the rules and is willing to break them then we need to make sure we show we are willing to enforce and protect our plant breeders’ rights seriously,” he said.

Moreover, Marcil’s unauthorized sales of flax seed could have compromised efforts to flush Triffid-contaminated flax seed from the system, Hyra said. Reconstituted flax seed, certified free of the unregistered GMO variety Triffid, was released in 2012.

“All SeCan members agreed to switch over to the new seed stocks and get rid of all past seed stocks,” Hyra said. “Someone selling old stock could’ve caused harm and prolonged the issue for us.”

In this case both varieties were protected under the previous UPOV’78 international protection protocol. New rules apply to varieties protected under UPOV’91, which took effect last year.

When SeCan’s right are breached it seeks to get what it’s owed in royalties, plus other costs, including legal fees, Hyra said.

Watch for more on this story in the Feb. 25 issue of the Manitoba Co-operator.

— Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Miami, Man. Follow him at @AllanReporter on Twitter.

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Canterra Seeds and French farmer co-operative Limagrain on Thursday announced they would further tie up their wheat variety commercialization work through a new joint seed breeding and development business.

The two companies said their new cereal breeding and development partnership, to be named Limagrain Cereals Research Canada, will be based in Saskatoon.

Limagrain — which has already worked with Canterra since 2012, through an exclusive license deal for commercialization of wheat varieties — also said Thursday it will buy a minority stake in Canterra, including rights to name representatives to Canterra’s board of directors.

Both deals are expected to be completed by the end of September, subject to conditions such as the usual due diligence — and a requirement “that there be no changes to Bill C-18,” Canada’s federal Agricultural Growth Act.

“There is no understating the importance of this deal to Canadian agriculture,” Canterra CEO David Hansen said in a release.

Passed in February, C-18 — which, among other things, tightened up Canada’s Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) legislation — “has opened up a whole new world of wheat,” he said.

“Our farmers can now buy and grow varieties that they couldn’t access before. For us as seed marketers, this is obviously an opportunity, but the opportunities are much greater for our customers, the producers.”

The Limagrain Cereals j.v. is expected to bring “significant added value” to the Prairie grain sector through development of new varieties of cereals, with a specific focus on wheat and use of “the most advanced technologies currently available.”

Passage of C-18 earlier this year, and Ottawa’s recent related move to ratify UPOV 91 (the 1991 International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants), puts Canada “finally on a level playing field with the rest of the international plant breeding community,” Hansen said in a separate federal government release.

France’s Limagrain already bills itself as the fourth largest seed company in the world and a top player in wheat and other cereals.

“Western Canada’s expertise in cereal breeding is globally recognized,” Bruno Carette, Limagrain Field Seeds’ CEO, said in the two companies’ release Thursday.

“We are proud to bring our cereal breeding expertise to Saskatoon — a hub for cereal development in Canada — and work collaboratively to breed advanced wheat genetics for farmers in Western Canada.”

“Today’s partnership announcement is a great example of how the Agricultural Growth Act is delivering for Canadian producers,” federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said at the j.v. announcement Thursday.

“Bringing Canada’s seed regulations up-to-date has created opportunities for new investment in crop breeding in Canada,” Rosetown, Sask. farmer Jim Wickett, chair of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, said in a separate release Thursday.

The planned Canterra/Limagrain venture “demonstrates the value of creating a policy environment that encourages investment,” he said. “Prairie wheat growers will be the main beneficiaries.” — AGCanada.com Network

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Palmerston, Ont.-based C+M, during its annual Red Wheat Industry Day on Thursday, brought growers an extensive breakdown of updated plant breeders’ rights (PBR) in Canada and the implications for farmers and downstream users.

Patty Townsend, outgoing CEO of the Canadian Seed Trade Association and a last-minute stand-in for Lorne Hadley of the Canadian Plant Technology Association, spoke on PBR91, the amended PBR directives that went into effect Feb. 27.

Townsend highlighted the specifications outlined in the new PBR91 guidelines relative to those laid out in the PBR78 directives, and what’s at stake in terms of the use of so-called bin-run or farm-saved seed at the farm level and in research and development investment.

The use of bin-run is repeatedly cited as an impediment to attracting investment in plant breeding for cereals in Canada. With PBR91, the liabilities for using bin-run or farm-saved seed are reaching farther from the farm, to other on-farm participants, as well as local elevators, grain-handlers and downstream users.

Townsend ran four different quizzes to test the audience’s understanding of the regulations, from the mere use of bin-run, which remains legal on a grower’s own farm, to the trade of seed for services rendered, which is illegal.

In her outline of the changes, she noted increased investment in the development of new varieties has taken place around the world, including in France, Argentina, China and Poland, following the adoption and implementation of PBR.

In Argentina, she said, the release of new varieties doubled in 10 years. In China, that number increased by 300 per cent in just five years. And the benefit, aside from reinvestment of funds into development of new varieties, is increased yields for growers.

Entrenching the PBR91 guidelines in Canada, Townsend said, also increases the confidence of plant breeders for investing in Canadian R+D work.

“It also gives international plant breeders confidence to send varieties to Canada,” she said.

Under the heading of “Best Practices” and to underscore the bottom line on PBR91 directives, Townsend said that whether you’re a farmer, a grain elevator operator, retailer or downstream user, “know what you’re buying and know who you’re dealing with.”

Townsend is stepping down as CEO of the CSTA and will be replaced by Grain Farmers of Ontario’s vice-president for strategic development, Crosby Devitt, effective July 27.

The C+M event also featured the unveiling of the company’s new Brasetto rye, the first hybridized cereal in Ontario. Growers who have planted it have seen yields increase by between 30 and 100 per cent, the company said.

Although there may be some “sticker shock” on the pricing of the seed, C+M’s Rob McLaughlin said he’s confident he’ll have growers lining up to sign on for premium contracts he’s expecting to see with millers and distillers.

— Ralph Pearce is a field editor for Country Guide at St. Marys, Ont. Follow him on Twitter at @arpee_AG.

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Canada’s representatives to the World Trade Organization, on Friday in Geneva, deposited the government’s “instrument of ratification” for the 1991 Act of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV ’91).

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Monday the move finalizes one of the main measures of the government’s Agricultural Growth Act, which was passed this spring and brought Canada’s plant breeding legislation in line with the UPOV ’91 Convention.

“With the ratification of UPOV ’91, plant breeders have more protection and farmers have better access to a wider variety of seeds,” the government said in a release Monday.

The treaty, the government said, “encourages increased investment in plant breeding and brings Canada in line with trading partners, allowing Canadian farmers to be more competitive in the global marketplace.”

“We have been operating under the UPOV ’91 Convention since February, but now it has been announced to the world,” Canadian Seed Trade Association president Dave Baute said in a separate release.

“After 22 years of hard work, Canada’s formal ratification of the 1991 UPOV Convention places the agricultural sector solidly on the world stage and confirms that the door is open for international and domestic collaboration and innovation.”

Since the Act was passed in late February, the CSTA and other crop commodity groups said Monday, “new varieties of wheat, oats, flax, and potatoes, that would never have come to Canada without the updates to Canada’s Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) legislation, have become available.”

PBR is federally-mandated intellectual property protection for plant breeders who develop new plant varieties and want to sell and collect royalties from the sale of seed or plant genetics.

Canada, the government said Monday, has already seen a 20 per cent increase in the number of PBR applications since the Agricultural Growth Act came into force this year.

Formal UPOV ’91 ratification, the groups said, “confirms to the world that Canada supports an agricultural sector that is sustainable and competitive and that investment is welcome domestically and internationally.”

“Stronger intellectual property rights have proven to provide greater incentives to increase investment in research and development for Canada’s crop sector, giving our farmers greater access to the newest crop varieties,” Ritz said.

Critics of UPOV ’91 such as Canada’s National Farmers Union have said the treaty will make it “much more difficult” for farmers to save and reuse seed, forces them to pay more for seed and consolidates control over seed with the “world’s largest agribusiness corporations.”

Bringing PBR in line with UPOV ’91, the government said, doesn’t change what farmers are allowed to do with respect to protected plant varieties, but is meant to “facilitate a breeder’s ability to enforce his/her rights on protected plant varieties.”

The government has also said Canada’s UPOV-based PBR legislation enshrines the “farmers’ privilege,” allowing farmers to save, clean, treat and store seed produced from a protected plant variety and use it for replanting on their own farms.

“If farmers are obtaining seed of a protected variety legitimately, then there will be no increased liability.” — AGCanada.com Network

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Immediately after the bill received royal assent Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz tabled a treaty in Parliament to ratify the UPOV 91 Convention (the 1991 Convention of the International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties), the international standard for plant breeders’ rights (PBR).

Being party to UPOV 91 will encourage more plant breeding in Canada and bring in more plant germplasm, resulting in higher yields and bigger profits for farmers, Ritz said Friday at a separate event celebrating the legislation, at Canterra Seeds in Winnipeg.

Proponents of Ritz’s package of legislative amendments, which will align Canadian PBR with UPOV ’91, hail the legislation as offering opportunities for increased investment and delivery of new varieties both from plant breeders operating in and outside of Canada.

Partners in Innovation, an umbrella group of ag commodity groups backing the amendments, said Friday the new law will ensure farmers have access to “new and improved varieties developed in Canada and internationally.”

“Many Prairie farmers have benefited from private investment in canola, corn and soybeans,” Mike Bast, Manitoba vice-president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, said at the Winnipeg event.

“I’ve seen those benefits firsthand in each of these crops. We now have an opportunity to see similar benefits from new investment in the breeding of wheat, barley and other crops.”

The legislation has the support of all “relevant” farm organizations, Ritz said. The list includes the Canadian Canola Growers Association, Alberta Wheat Commission, Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Grain Growers of Canada, Western Canadian Wheat Growers and Cereals Canada.

“Rights and responsibilities”

The legislation will also “further enhance the contribution of Canadian fresh fruit and vegetable growers to healthy diets for Canadian families,” Keith Kuhl, president of the Canadian Horticultural Council, said in Partners in Innovation’s release.

Fruit and vegetable growers, he said, will be able to “access new and innovative crop varieties developed internationally while encouraging domestic plant breeding and the development of Canadian varieties that can compete in international markets.”

The Canadian Seed Trade Association also supports the act, adding Friday it plans to run an outreach and education campaign “to make sure everyone understands their rights and responsibilities” under Ritz’s amendments.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has long opposed the legislation, fearing it will allow seed companies to charge farmers more and restrict farmers from saving grain from their own crops for seed.

“I cannot stress enough that amendments to the plant breeders’ rights act allow for farmers to retain the right to save, clean, and store seed for their own operations,” Ritz said. “There seems to be some confusion around that.”

UPOV’91 will not result in Canadian farmers getting access to more varieties and higher yields, according to Terry Boehm, chair of NFU’s seed and trade committee.

“With increased rights to plant breeders we will only see increased costs to farmers and even greater domination by the giant seed companies that are so inefficient that they need enhanced plant breeders rights to stay in business,” he wrote in an email.

“Farmers will rue the day when they see their so-called privilege diminished over time.”

Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) president Dan Mazier said in an interview he hopes farmers will get a major say in developing the regulations under the act.

The Manitoba farmers’ group, he said, “feels if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Ritz told reporters farmers and other “industry stakeholders” will be consulted on the regulations.

Among other groups, the Alberta Wheat Commission hailed the bill’s passage, but noted its support to PBR amendments is on three conditions.

Farmers, the commission said Friday, must maintain the ability to use farm-saved seed, and federal government funding of pre-breeding and genetic research must be maintained.

Thirdly, the commission said, the “farmer and public equity stake in Canada’s proprietary genetic material for cereals developed over the past 100 years continues to be recognized.”

— Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator based at Miami, Man. Includes files from Co-operator reporter Shannon VanRaes in Winnipeg, Commodity News Service Canada and AGCanada.com Network staff.

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