ABSTRACT
Other laws, norms and professional associations have great bearing on how varieties are developed, introduced and publicized in the United States. In terms of development in the United States, it is not the Federal Seed Act but, rather, the active application of intellectual property protections – such as plant patents, utility patents and Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) certificates – to agricultural innovations that currently has the greatest influence on the breeding and distribution of new agricultural varieties.3 This vigorous intellectual
property activity is quite different than varieties registration. However, those varieties given a PVPA certificate do have to be registered in the Variety Name Database, if those varieties are vegetable and agriculture species, although varieties such as potatoes, trees and flowers are not required to be registered in the list. With the absence of a mandatory varieties registration system, breeders in the United States are able to seek, and significantly utilize, the nongovernmental, voluntary registering of varieties, particularly with the Journal of Plant Registrations, to publish their innovations and learn about the work of other breeders.
