Defending Crop Protection Intellectual Property

Intellectual property (IP) protection is necessary to reward innovation and ensure industries, especially agriculture, continue to innovate.

Agricultural research has delivered great results over the last century, increasing yields and lifting millions of people out of poverty and hunger. CropLife America believes in the fundamental role of intellectual property in the promotion of agricultural research and innovation. With an average time to market for each new product exceeding 10 years in most cases, due to stringent regulatory approval timelines, the crop protection industry could not contribute to future investment without patent protection. This is as important for generic participants as it is for inventing companies as generic products directly result from the patented products original innovation.

As the globe shrinks and more agriculture becomes international, it is increasingly important that IP protection be consistent and implemented on a global scale. Food production must increase by up to 50 percent to meet the nutritional needs of a world population expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2040. Consistent and adequate intellectual property protection is essential to the ongoing development of newer and more sophisticated products to better serve farmers’ needs and ultimately benefit consumers.