The Plant Varieties and Farmers Act 2001 came with several litigations to safeguard existing plant varieties, developing new ones and protecting the rights of the farmers and plant breeders. Even though the law is relatively recent, Blueinkk has been able to accumulate enough experience over the years to assist the clients with:
- Drafting, filing and prosecuting plant varieties registration application and ensuring that all the pre-registration investigative measures are taken and all the legal formalities associated with licensing and assignment issues are completed beforehand.
- Representing the cases involved with opposing and defending against infringement.
- Providing post-registration services including renewal and restoration.
- Assistance in the matters pertaining to surrender and revocations of certificates, rectifications and correcting entries in plant and varieties register.
- Representing the clients before the Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority, Plant Varieties Registry and Plant Varieties Protection Appellate tribunal.
The Biological Diversity Act was introduced in 2002. Along with the goal of protection of India’s various ecosystems and habitats, the act also highlights the mechanisms for sharing the monetary benefits arising out of the use of traditional biological resources and knowledge. Our practice in this domain is focused on:
- Drafting, filing and managing the application that seek approval from the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) for access to biological resources and related traditional knowledge, and applying for intellectual property protection.
- Facilitating clients with end to end services – from obtaining NBA’s approval to enforcement of patent rights – for applications concerned with the biological material obtained from India.
- Attending to and managing the post and preapproval proceedings and formalities that involve the preparation and filing of half-yearly reports of the progress of the research, utilization of biological resources and bio-surveys.
- Drafting and executing ABS agreement and obtaining permits from IRCCs (Internationally Recognized Certificates of Compliance)
- Representing client’s cases before NBA and ABS