How to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in biological breeding

Biological breeding is a technological innovation activity of breeding new varieties of animals and plants by using modern biotechnology, and it is one of the strategic emerging industries spawned by modern biotechnology. Biological breeding is not only related to the future development of biological industry and new energy industry, but also related to food security and national security. From 2011 to 2013, China issued three documents focusing on seed industry safety for three consecutive years to cope with the crisis faced by the current seed industry development, which fully demonstrated the continuous improvement of the state's understanding of the importance of seed industry safety. At present, it is urgent to speed up the implementation of the intellectual property protection strategy of biological breeding, promote technological innovation of seed industry and ensure the safety of national seed industry.

Intellectual property protection is a fundamental means to safeguard seed safety in developed countries. As the basic rules of international trade, intellectual property rights are increasingly becoming a strategic weapon in international trade competition and an important symbol of a country's international core competitiveness. In recent years, the competition for biological resources in the world has intensified. Developed countries control the seed industry chain and value chain globally through intellectual property rights, accelerate the occupation and profit plunder of the seed market in developing countries, form a monopoly pattern of biological breeding, and pose a serious threat to the seed industry security of developing countries including China. Strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights of biological breeding and constructing protective nets and barriers for seed industry safety are important means for developed countries to maintain their seed industry safety. For example, developed countries such as the United States, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands implement the "dual-track system" of special law and patent law for the protection of new biological varieties; Italy, Hungary and new Zealand implement special intellectual property legislative protection for new biological varieties. By virtue of their biotechnology advantages, developed countries try to occupy and monopolize international biological resources by strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights of biological breeding, and change from controlling agricultural terminal agricultural products to controlling agricultural source seeds. They compete to build their own core advantages in international biotechnology competition and lay a solid foundation for winning international competition.

Weak protection of intellectual property rights leads to the gradual emergence of seed industry security crisis in China. The intellectual property protection of biological breeding in China started late, and the incentive of intellectual property to independent innovation of seed industry is insufficient. The existing intellectual property protection of biological breeding is still in the rough protection stage for new varieties, and there is no comprehensive intellectual property protection system for biological breeding from germplasm resources to new variety promotion. In reality, there are still many legal gaps and institutional defects. The weak protection of intellectual property rights in China makes it difficult to fully display the value of intellectual property rights, which leads to insufficient motivation for enterprises to participate in seed science and technology innovation. The serious disconnection between production, learning and research leads to the lack of core technology of biological breeding in China, less accumulation of independent intellectual property rights, weak first-mover ability and international competitive advantage of seed science and technology. Poor protection of intellectual property rights causes some fake seeds to impact the seed industry market, dampens the enthusiasm of independent innovation of seed industry, leads to insufficient investment in technology research and development of domestic seed industry enterprises, few leading seed industry enterprises with integrated operation of breeding, breeding and promotion, and the lack of strong scientific and technological support and international core competitiveness of national seed industry enterprises. Weak protection of intellectual property rights also leads to serious outflow of germplasm resources in China. Foreign monopoly enterprises enter China one after another and control many key fields by virtue of strong intellectual property protection. Seed crisis is approaching day by day, thus threatening national agricultural security. For example, after China's wild soybean germplasm resources were stolen by foreign institutions, they applied for intellectual property rights of new soybean varieties, which caused the embarrassment that Chinese people had to pay for intellectual property rights first. At present, almost all seed industries such as soybean seeds, corn seeds, flowers and vegetables in our country are infiltrated by foreign monopoly seed industry groups, which occupy the core technical advantages and devour a large number of seed industry interests in our country. Under this background, it is urgent to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights of biological breeding in China.

The focus of intellectual property protection in biological breeding is to encourage independent innovation in seed industry. Innovation is the soul of a nation. The important function of intellectual property is to stimulate and protect scientific and technological innovation. The primary task of intellectual property protection of biological breeding in China is to construct scientific and technological innovation system of biological breeding, encourage and protect technological innovation of biological breeding, promote the integration of seed industry R & D and production, and cultivate independent intellectual property rights and commercialization potential of seed industry. At present, the weakness and crisis of China's seed industry lies in insufficient technological innovation, few independent intellectual property rights and lack of core competitiveness of seed industry international competition. Therefore, it is urgent to use intellectual property rights to stimulate independent innovation of seed industry. The protection of seed industry safety is public, which is an important part of national security strategy and needs government efforts. At the same time, biological breeding intellectual property rights are intangible assets and must follow market mechanisms and laws. Therefore, we should strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights of biological breeding, encourage independent innovation of seed industry, accelerate the organic connection between government and market, and form a dynamic mechanism for the protection of intellectual property rights of biological breeding. It is necessary to strengthen the government's driving force and increase the government's policy support and basic research and development investment for the protection and innovation of intellectual property rights in biological breeding. We should give full play to the motive force of the market, optimize the allocation of biotechnology and resources, and stimulate the vitality of enterprises. At the same time, we should give full play to the enthusiasm of farmers and strengthen the support for the protection and innovation of intellectual property rights in biological breeding.

Strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights in biological breeding requires a "three-pronged approach" of policy, law and management. The protection of intellectual property rights in biological breeding is a systematic project involving the interests of governments, scientific research institutions, enterprises and farmers. Therefore, to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights of biological breeding to ensure the safety of national seed industry, we must change from simple seed industry safety protection to enhancing agricultural comprehensive competitiveness, and from biological breeding technology support to agricultural science and technology innovation strategy support. We must take the market as the guidance, take the enterprise as the main body, break the international technology monopoly, stimulate the domestic breeding technology innovation vitality, and establish an all-round guarantee system from the aspects of policy, law and management. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a comprehensive intellectual property protection system for biological breeding, especially to improve the policy system for the protection and benefit sharing of relevant genetic resources, and to strengthen administrative support; It is necessary to perfect the legislation related to biological breeding, strengthen the enforcement and judicial protection of intellectual property laws; It is necessary to strengthen the innovation management of biological breeding, perfect the international cooperation and exchange management of biological breeding, strictly prevent the theft of germplasm resources, and construct an all-round intellectual property management and monitoring system for biological breeding.

The protection of intellectual property rights in biological breeding is a war of international interests and sovereignty. It must be raised to the height of national security strategy, effectively combine domestic intellectual property rules with international trade rules, accelerate the transformation of agricultural development mode, implement high-end element integration strategy, continuously improve the independent intellectual property rights level of seed industry, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in biological breeding, and ensure the safety of national seed industry. At the same time, we should also prevent the alienation caused by excessive protection of intellectual property rights in biological breeding and effectively protect the rights and interests of farmers.