The Protection of Plants and Animals in the Russian Federation

The political changes in Central and Eastern Europe have prompted a wave of legislative reforms in the area of industrial property law. The present article aims to examine the current legal scene as to the protection of new plants and animals in the Russian Federation in the context of the recent enactment of the Law of the Russian Federation on Selection Achievements. For those who are not familiar with the legal protection of plants and animals and the like, the first section provides some background information on the development and propagation techniques for obtaining new plant and animal varieties. The second section focuses on the Russian Law on Selection Achievements, which deals with the protection of plant varieties and animal breeds. The third section studies how inventions for plants and animals are covered in the Patent Law of the Russian Federation and how problems of co-existence with the Russian Law on Selection Achievements are handled. In section four, finally, some critical remarks conclude our study of the new Russian intellectual property rights system for the protection of plants and animals