Attention Plant Breeders: CIOPORA Highlights Upcoming Plant Intellectual Property Workshop
August 22, 2018 
If you’re a plant breeder or you own a plant patent, or aspire to one day, this news is for you.
CIOPORA Academy is partnering with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney to bring the next workshop in its series to Washington, D.C., September 5-6, 2018. The workshop will provide participants with a 360-degree perspective on the available intellectual property (IP) instruments for plant innovators and, for the first time since the launch of the program, will raise the bar from the competence to advanced level, which means contents on IP strategy with increased complexity.
“We have created the CIOPORA Academy to help plant breeders protect the results of their work and guarantee for sufficient return on their R&D investments,” says CIOPORA Secretary General Dr Edgar Krieger. “The Washington, D.C. workshop will revolve around the strategic IP portfolio management outlining multiple legal tools, within and without the IP protection systems, that can help innovative plant breeders secure their proprietary rights.”
The 1.5-day workshop hosted at the Washington D.C. offices of CIOPORA member Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney will encompass lectures on both domestic and foreign IP protection regimes, touching upon the U.S. plant patents and utility patents, Plant Breeders Rights, the IP systems such as trademarks (strategies in multiple jurisdictions) and trade secrets, as well as topics going beyond the sole IP including Competition law (in the U.S.) and (national and international) taxation of royalties. The speaker lineup includes leading experts on IP for plant innovations, including lawyers from Buchanan, Baker McKenzie (US), DíazWiechers (Chile), The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In addition to the lectures, participants will visit the USPTO facilities in Alexandria, Va, attend a meeting with the Supervisory Patent Examiners, and take a tour of the Public Search Facility and the National Inventors Hall of Fame on September 6.
“We’re thrilled to be a host and part of the CIOPORA Academy,” says Dr. Travis W. Bliss, counsel and chair of Buchanan’s IP Biotechnology & Life Sciences group. “IP protection for plant varieties is becoming ever more valuable in the global economy and we are excited to help educate people on this important topic.”
The CIOPORA Academy is an ongoing, specialized training and certificate program for individuals seeking to expand their knowledge of Intellectual Property (IP) in the field of horticulture. The CIOPORA Academy events are held at different locations around the world and vary between one-day workshops to three-day seminars tailored to the needs of the green sector. Each event tackles topics surrounding IP for plant innovations and is led by world’s leading IP experts. With six workshops and over 100 learners from 17 countries so far, the CIOPORA Academy aspires to be a global reference program on IP for the green business.
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