Comparative Study On Patent Protection For New Varieties Of Plants And Animals In China And US

New varieties of plants and animals are the key technology to increase agricultural output and realize food security. At the same time, the breeding industry has the characteristics of high investment and high risk, so it needs for more effective intellectual property protection. But due to differences in economic, social and other conditions, as well as the particularity of new varieties of plants and animals are life objects, there are large difference between countries of patent protection of new varieties of plants and animals, the protection scope and protection means adjustments for a long time. Since 1985, the implementation of the patent system in China, the number of patent applications and grants has increased substantially. But in the field of new varieties of plants and animals, breeding methods have been patented in China, and the varieties have not been included in patent protection yet. It is difficult to motivate innovation of Chinese enterprises in the field because of the low level of patent protection, and superior varieties of agricultural production still rely on import. Therefore, it is necessary to study on the protection system of new varieties of plants and animals in China, rethink the defects and deficiencies. Promote the improvement of the patent system and the key technology in the field of independent innovation through the institutional innovation.It is beneficial to find problems and deficiencies through comparative study. The United States implements patent system early in the world, and give "double track" protection to new varieties of plants and animals. There are strong innovation ability in the field of breeding, and multinational seed industry companies such as Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer. Therefore, the paper selects the United States and China as the object of the comparative study. In this paper, comb the evolution process of new varieties of plants and animals protection system of China and the United States through summarizing literature and policy documents. The legislative spirit and protection strength of the system are compared. Then patent data is retrieved and arranged, indicators are constructed, the implementation performance of patent protection is compared by patent number, patent quality and patent holder structure.Research shows that patent protection of new varieties of plants and animals in the two countries have experienced a development process from weakness to strength. There are patent law and specialized law to protect the new varieties of plants and animals in US. There is only an administrative regulation to give varieties protection to new plant varieties, and varieties itself is ruled out by patent system in China. It leads to the strength of protection in China is weaker than US. It is lack of incentives for innovation in China due to the shortcoming of patent protection. There is a big gap between China and US on the quantity and quality of plant and animal patents, and the patentee is given priority to with nonprofit organization that is disadvantage to realization of technology industrialization in China. Therefore, we should transform legislation thinking positively, strengthen the patent protection of new varieties gradually to incentive the innovators, especially the enterprise effectively.