IP in the Agri- Food sector (II): Plant Varieties

According to WIPO’s Global Innovation Index 2017, which focuses on intellectual property in the Agricultural sector worldwide, the highest shares of intellectual property instruments in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico are held by non-residents. The same report concludes that the Latin American region needs a new system of incentives within the agri-food sector and an overhaul of its institutional framework, which is still complex and bureaucratic. Therefore, EU SMEs are, at the moment, able to enter a sector whose degree of maturity in Latin America is much lower than in Europe through a consistent strategy that balances innovation and marketing. IPRs are the tools needed to correctly protect the intangible assets resulting from both of them.