The Farm-Saved Seed In The Upov Convention: Delimitation Of The Exception Under The Earliest Upov Acts

While ¡n the Act of 1991 of the UPOV Convention the Farm-Saved Seed (FSS) is expressly codified and further developed, this provisión is missing from the previous Acts. The iterature argües that the FSS is admissible under the Acts of 1961 and 1978, but very little guidance is provided by the Union on its interpretation under those Acts. The current study addresses the delimitation of the scope of the FSS under the Acts of 1961 and 1978. To this purpose, the rote of the main potentiatty appticable means of interpretation of the Convention have been thoroughly analyzed. From the results of this anatysis, the scope of the FSS under the retevant Acts has been determined. The study condudes that the FSS has been expressly accepted by the Union since its very beginning, in the Diplomatic Conferences of 1957-1961. Flowever, its scope, atready under the eartier Acts, is not unlimited. Besides, a clear trend towards its réstriction has been appreciated, not onty between the Acts of 1991 and the previous ones,(4) but also between the means of interpretation of the Act of 1961 and those means appticable to the interpretation of the Act of 1978. The interest of these and other findings of the study is not restricted though to the interpretation of the FSS under the eartier UPOV Acts. This study may also play a key rote in the interpretation of the FSS under the Act of 1991, and help to better design the future of sui generis systems for ptant variety protection.