This book is the first collective publication bringing together the results of the research activity carried out by the members of the international network "Intellectual Property in Agriculture" (https://ipagri.uib.eu/). The network is committed to cross-cutting and comprehensive research approaches to intellectual property and competition law in the agri-food and biotech sectors, and this book attempts to move in that direction, by addressing a limited but diverse number of relevant topics in those fields. It focuses mainly on two typically agricultural intellectual property rights, plant breeders' rights and geographical indications, in connection with a number of diverse issues, such as organic farming and the new notion of “organic variety suitable for organic production” from art. 3(19) of Regulation (EU) 2018/848, the evolution of the UPOV system, Opinion 0003/19 of 14 May 2020 of the EBA of the EPO, the state of play in the EU with the regulation of GM crops, the new framework set by the “European Green Deal”, or innovation within the GIs' paradigm through plant breeding. The book is particularly addressed to policy-makers, lawyers, technical experts, and, in general, anyone with an interest in life sciences and law in those fields.

While in the Act of 1991 of the UPOV Convention the Farm-Saved Seed (FSS) is expressly codified and further developed, this provision is missing from the previous Acts. The literature argues 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 role of the main potentially applicable means of interpretation of the Convention have been thoroughly analyzed. From the results of this analysis, the scope of the FSS under the relevant Acts has been determined. The study concludes that the FSS has been expressly accepted by the Union since its very beginning, in the Diplomatic Conferences of 1957-1961. However, its scope, already under the earlier Acts, is not unlimited. Besides, a clear trend towards its restriction has been appreciated, not only 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 applicable 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 earlier UPOV Acts. This study may also play a key role in the interpretation of the FSS under the Act of 1991, and help to better design the future of sui generis systems for plant variety protection.