For nearly a century, the United States has offered some form of intellectual property protection for novel plant varieties.
breeders can use to secure protection for their novel varieties.
is marijuana or hemp under current law.
can be reproduced in a true-to-type manner via seed.
The ongoing federal illegality of marijuana complicates the issue of certain IP protections for novel cannabis varieties.
Plant Patent protection is available only to plant varieties that are reproduced asexually, not to seed-reproduced varieties.
long as the variety can be reproduced asexually.
willing to accept a deposit of material that is federally illegal.
material sufficient to allow the variety to be reproduced. often be required to make such a biological deposit.
In contrast to patents, which are issued by the U.S.
Thus, in theory, PVP protection could be available for any type of cannabis plant, regardless of its manner of reproduction.
Two other points worth noting that are not addressed above relate to the use of trademarks and trade secrets.
varieties.