IP Canada Report 2021
Plant breeders' rights

Plant breeders use this form of IP right to protect their new varieties, obtaining exclusive rights in relation to the propagating material (seeds, cuttings, budwood, etc.) of their plant variety. Plant varieties can be grouped into agricultural plants (cereals, pulses, potatoes, oilseeds and forages) and horticulture plants (fruits, vegetables and ornamentals). In Canada, the plant breeders' rights IP regime is administered by the Canadian Plant Breeders' Rights Office (PBRO), within the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

Plant breeders' rights applications filed in Canada

In 2020, the PBRO received 337 plant breeders' rights applications, the first decrease since 2015 (Figure 24). This could be attributed to the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on plant breeder activity. Furthermore, the decrease is observed only in non-resident activity, given that the number of resident filings (75) did not show any variation compared with 2019 while non-resident filings decreased from 295 units in 2019 to 262 in 2020.

Figure 24. Plant breeders' rights applications in Canada by residency status, 2011–2020
Figure 24 is a combined bar and line chart that show plant breeders' rights activity in Canada by residency status. Bars indicate annual activity by residents and non-residents. A line denotes total activity by both residents and non-residents.
Figure  24 – text version
Figure 24. Plant breeders' rights applications in Canada by residency status, 2011–2020
Year Resident Non-resident Total
2011 38 274 312
2012 51 330 381
2013 42 283 325
2014 80 263 343
2015 66 212 278
2016 66 214 280
2017 59 244 303
2018 50 280 330
2019 75 295 370
2020 75 262 337

According to Figure 25, 22% of plant breeders' rights applications were received from residents while non-residents were responsible for 78% of the total applications, demonstrating the reliance of international varieties in the Canadian marketplace. A total of 40% of the filings came from the United States, which saw 135 applications and a balanced proportion of agriculture and horticulture varieties, an increase of 4% compared with applications filed in 2019. This figure also suggests that the decline in filings in 2020 was driven mainly by a drop of 44% in filings originating from the Netherlands, compared with 2019.

Figure 25. Top 6 countries filing for plant breeders' rights in Canada, 2020
Figure 25 is a bar chart. Each bar represents 1 of the top 6 countries filing for plant breeders' rights in Canada in 2020. The countries are the United States of America, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The bars are sorted from left to right, by filing amounts. Inside each bar, the percentage indicates that country's share of the total number of filings in Canada. On top of each bar, an arrow aims upward or downward depending on the variation over the previous year. The percentage inside the arrow indicates how much filings from that country varied compared with the previous year.
Figure  25 – text version
Figure 25. Top 6 countries filing for plant breeders' rights in Canada, 2020
PBR applications by country of origin 2020 % of total Δ 2019
United States of America 135 40% 2%
Canada 75 22% 0%
Germany 33 10% 6%
Netherlands 28 8% -44%
Switzerland 22 7% 29%
United Kingdom 13 4% 160%

Interesting insights on plant breeders' rights activity can be obtained when the filing trends are broken down by variety group, presented next.

Filing activity by variety group – Horticultural

Filings for horticultural plants—fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals—are heavily weighted by non-resident activity, while resident applications represented only 7% of the total for this variety group in 2020. Consequently, non-resident filings are the main driver, which explains the shape of the filing trend shown in Figure 26. The PBRO received 169 applications in 2020, 26 (13%) fewer than in 2019. Over the last decade, the highest number of horticultural filings occurred in 2012, with a total of 282 applications.

Figure 26. Plant breeders' rights applications for horticulture varieties in Canada by resident status, 2011–2020
Figure 26 is a combined bar and line chart that shows plant breeders' rights activity in Canada for horticulture varieties. Bars indicate annual activity by residents and by non-residents. A line denotes total activity by both residents and non-residents.
Figure  26 – text version
Figure 26. Plant breeders' rights applications for horticulture varieties in Canada by resident status, 2011–2020
Year Resident Non-resident Total
2011 11 234 245
2012 17 265 282
2013 12 211 223
2014 9 179 188
2015 11 161 172
2016 11 135 146
2017 14 169 183
2018 7 196 203
2019 8 187 195
2020 11 158 169

Filing activity by variety group – Agricultural

Resident filing activity for agricultural plants—cereals, pulses, potatoes, oilseeds, and forages—is higher than that for horticulture plants. In 2020, resident filings represented 38% of total filings. Within the last decade, this proportion reached its lowest in 2013 (29%) and peaked in 2015 (52%), the only time over that 10-year period that resident filings were higher than non-resident filings. The PBRO received 168 applications for agricultural varieties in 2020, 7 units less than in the previous year, when the number of filings had reached its highest.

Figure 27. Plant breeders' rights applications for agriculture varieties in Canada by resident status, 2011–2020
Figure 27 is a combined bar and line chart that show plant breeders' rights activity in Canada for agricultural varieties. Bars indicate annual activity by residents and by non-residents. A line denotes total activity by both residents and non-residents.
Figure  27 – text version
Figure 27. Plant breeders' rights applications for agriculture varieties in Canada by resident status, 2011–2020
Year Resident Non-resident Total
2011 27 40 67
2012 34 65 99
2013 30 72 102
2014 71 84 155
2015 55 51 106
2016 55 79 134
2017 45 75 120
2018 43 84 127
2019 67 108 175
2020 64 104 168

Conclusion

Plant breeders' rights trends in Canada are characterized by a strong presence of non-resident activity, especially in the horticultural area, while resident filings are concentrated primarily in the agricultural group. Applications in Canada grew over the past 5 years, until 2019, leading to a slight dip in 2020. While this 4% drop could be attributed to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, new data will enable a more in-depth analysis on the resilience of this IP right to the economic crisis.

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