Harvested Material and Exhaustion of the Breeder’s Right: A Systematic Interpretation of Articles 14(2) and 16 of the 1991 UPOV Act and Case Studies of the Soybean Chains in Uruguay and Argentina
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26422/RIPI.2026.2400.rapKeywords:
plant breeder’s right, UPOV 1991, harvested material, exhaustion, reasonable opportunity, cascade principle, soybean, Uruguay, Argentina, good-faith third partiesAbstract
This article determines when a plant breeder’s right extends to soybean grain obtained through the unauthorized use of propagating material of a protected variety and how exhaustion limits such an extension. Using a systematic, interdisciplinary, and comparative methodology, it examines Articles 14(2), 15, and 16 together, considering their diplomatic history, the UPOV´s Explanatory Notes, the independent study WG-HRV/9/2, and the comments submitted at WG-HRV/9. The analysis concludes that unauthorized use and the absence of a reasonable opportunity are distinct conditions that must be satisfied cumulatively, and that the right must be exercised at the first commercial stage at which a reasonable opportunity to do so arises. This sequence is assessed in relation to Uruguay and Argentina, two countries bound by the 1978 Act whose soybean sectors are of major export significance. For Uruguay, the article considers Articles 71, 72, and 82 of Law No. 16,811 and one case from that jurisdiction. For Argentina, it examines Law No. 20,247, Decree No. 2,183/1991, and the applicable mechanisms for declaration, sampling, and varietal identification in grain, including Joint Resolution INASE–SAGyP No. 3/2026. Neither country currently provides for a substantive extension equivalent to Article 14(2), and both recognize specific rules concerning the use or sale of harvested material as raw material or food. The comparison identifies two possible functions of grain: as a source of evidence of prior conduct in the production chain and as a potential autonomous object of the exclusive right. It concludes that any such extension requires express legislative reform, subsidiary application of the cascade mechanism, robust evidence, protection for third parties acting in good faith, and proportionate measures—not an automatic royalty on commercial grain.
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