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Report
No.230703 |
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- Domestic - |
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MAFF Establishes Headquarters for Intellectual Property Protection The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) established 'A Headquarters for Intellectual Property Strategy' on February 23 with an aim to prevent draining out overseas of the varieties of agricultural crops unique to Japan. While MAFF is intensely promoting agricultural exports under the banner 'offensive agricultural policy', increased exports might expose Japanese breeders to a greater threat of their rights being infringed. However, because intellectual property pertaining to crop varieties could be powerful tools in export promotion, the headquarters, with senior vice-minister Issui Miura as its head, plans to draw up an export strategy featuring both offensive and defensive elements by as early as June. Japanese crop varieties will be effectively protected if property such as patent and trade-mark were acquired on the land of export market. The headquarters, therefore, will collect and compile information on the status of intellectual property administration in overseas countries and encourage Japanese crop breeders to obtain intellectual property rights overseas. Should any defects be found in the intellectual property administration in overseas countries, MAFF will talk to their government for putting them right and also about more effective use of intellectual property in such ways as encouraging contractual relationship to permit use of the variety by overseas plant breeders. The headquarters plans to draw up a set of proposals by June for inclusion in the government's plan for the promotion of intellectual property policy. Senior vice-minister Miura emphasized at the first meeting of the headquarters saying "it was important to have a solid strategy embracing both defensive and offensive aspects in the face of increasingly tougher international competition in agricultural trade." MAFF is promoting to achieve the doubling of agricultural, forestry and fisheries exports in 5 years beinning in 2005, and in the process, has come to find that the protecting of intellectual property was a major policy agenda when it detected at the end of last year that 'Beni-shuho', a variety of cherry fruit registered in Yamagata prefecture was grown without permission in China and Australia. |
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