The new EC proposal for a regulation on the production and marketing of plant reproductive material: upgrade or regression? An intellectual property perspective.

With the proposed EC reform, Value for Cultivation and Use (VCU) trials will include sustainability as a driver, broadening their scope from agricultural varieties to horticultural and fruit ones, and a plethora of derogations to variety registration and seed certification standards will be added or deepened; however, it is unlikely that the EU and Member States' plant variety protection schemes, farmers, or end consumers will truly benefit from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]