Research On The Legal Aspects Of New Agricultural Plant Varieties In The Context Of Seed Industry Revitalization

In July 2021,the "seed industry revitalization action plan" was officially considered and adopted by the Central Committee for the comprehensive deepening of reform,which pointed out the way forward for the high-quality development of China’s seed industry.Since ancient times,the country is based on food,and food is based on seeds.Protecting and developing new agricultural plant varieties is an inevitable requirement to realize the revitalization of China’s seed industry.In order to fully implement the action of revitalizing the seed industry,stimulate the innovative vitality in the field of research and development of new plant varieties,and fully protect the interests of variety owners,it is urgent to improve the legal protection system of new agricultural plant varieties.The legal protection of new agricultural plant varieties in China started late,and although some achievements have been made through the rapid development in recent years,there are still many problems compared with the western seed industry powerhouses.Insufficient legal protection of new varieties of agricultural plants has led to serious homogenization of agricultural germplasm resources in China,frequent infringement of variety rights,difficulty in defending the rights of variety rights holders and insufficient protection of interests,and lack of public awareness of knowledge and laws and regulations related to new varieties of agricultural plants.All these problems seriously hinder the healthy development of new varieties of agricultural plants in China.Therefore,how to better improve the legal protection of new agricultural plant varieties and cooperate with the successful realization of the goal of revitalizing the seed industry has become the subject of this paper.Based on summarizing the current situation of domestic and foreign researches,this paper uses the methods of literature analysis,comparative analysis and case analysis to define the concepts of seed industry revitalization,new plant varieties and new agricultural plant varieties,and introduce the origin and development of the legal protection of new agricultural plant varieties at home and abroad as well as the interaction between seed industry revitalization and new agricultural plant varieties,starting with the basic theoretical elaboration.After sorting out and analyzing the current situation of legislation,judiciary,law enforcement and legal awareness of new agricultural plant varieties in China,it is summarized that there are: a low level of legislation for the legal protection of new agricultural plant varieties,an uncoordinated legal system,poor operability of some provisions,inconsistent standards of evidence determination in judicial trials,inconsistent standards of judicial appraisal,an imperfect construction of administrative law enforcement system,poor standards of administrative punishment for infringement of new agricultural plant varieties.The problems of low administrative punishment standards for infringement of new agricultural plant variety rights,legal awareness of relevant subjects to be enhanced,and imperfect supporting measures for legal protection of new agricultural plant varieties.After analyzing the current situation of legal protection of new varieties of agricultural plants in the United States,Japan and India,we conclude that China can learn from the following experiences and inspirations: strengthening the connection between the special legislation on new varieties of agricultural plants and the patent law,taking into account the protection of the interests of the owners of new varieties of agricultural plants and farmers,and increasing the punishment for infringement of new varieties of agricultural plants.This paper suggests that a new plant variety protection law should be enacted as soon as possible,the convergence between the legal systems of new agricultural plant varieties should be strengthened,the specific contents of the relevant provisions of the legal protection of new agricultural plant varieties should be refined,the standard of evidence for notarial preservation should be unified,the standard of judicial appraisal of varieties should be improved,the amount of damages for infringement of new agricultural plant varieties should be reasonably determined,the construction of the administrative law enforcement system should be improved,and the standard of administrative punishment for infringement of new agricultural plant varieties should be raised.It is hoped that the analysis of this paper will help to promote the protection of new agricultural plant varieties.Through the analysis of this paper,we hope to put forward practical suggestions on the protection of new varieties of agricultural plants in China under the perspective of promoting the revitalization of seed industry,and provide a boost to the benign development of China’s seed industry.