Bill · 2026
Protection of New Plant Varieties (Amendment) Bill, 2026
Parliament describes the Bill’s purpose as bringing the law into conformity with UPOV 1991 and facilitating accession. It extends protection to all plant species, broadens who qualifies as a breeder, increases acts requiring the breeder’s prior authorisation and sets protection at 20 years, and 25 years for trees and vines. New section 15A(2) allows farmers, within reasonable limits and subject to safeguarding the breeder’s legitimate interests, to use the product of the harvest for propagating purposes on their own holdings. The Bill passed the Senate without amendment on 18 September 2026.
Senate · 4 March 1997
“Erodes the farmers’ privilege”
Hon. K. Persad-Bissessar (printed p. 48): “The 1991 revision of the convention also erodes the farmers’ privilege to use harvested material in the traditional manner, that is to say, to use the seed for his new crop.” … “Mr. President, it is our strongly held view that Trinidad and Tobago must participate in the framing of intellectual property legislation in this area by joining the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, and that we must do so by accession to the 1978 Convention rather than the 1991 Convention.” (p. 49): “…if one goes for the 1991 Convention, because of our development in Trinidad and Tobago, we would be greatly constrained; whereas with the 1978 Convention it would make for greater development among our plant breeders here in Trinidad and Tobago.” … “When the experts met, there was, therefore, general agreement that accession to the 1978 Convention was in the greater current interest of Trinidad and Tobago than accession to the 1991 Convention.”
Senate · 18 September 2026 (unrevised)
The Government’s decision to accede
Hon. S. Hosein: “…the Government has taken a decision and it reaffirms our commitment to strengthen the international or national intellectual property landscape through accession to the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention…” and “When we were drafting the amendments and so on, we would have had consultations with the UPOV technical team with respect to what we are doing here today.” Minister R. Ratiram named consulted stakeholders including the university, the Cocoa Research Centre and CARDI. Sen. A. Vieira SC (unrevised p. 46): “Now, the Bill, it does not tell us what the reasonable limits will be.”
UPOV 1978 · Arts. 4, 5, 8
The 1978 Act
Members apply the Convention to at least five genera or species on accession, rising to at least 24 within eight years (Art. 4). The breeder’s prior authorisation is required for production for purposes of commercial marketing, offering for sale and marketing of reproductive material (Art. 5). Minimum term: 15 years, 18 for vines and trees (Art. 8).
UPOV 1991 · Arts. 3, 14, 15, 19
The 1991 Act
Applies to all plant genera and species (Art. 3). Authorisation is required for production or reproduction, conditioning for propagation, offering for sale, selling or other marketing, exporting, importing and stocking (Art. 14(1)); extends in defined circumstances to harvested material (Art. 14(2)) and to essentially derived varieties (Art. 14(5)). Compulsory exceptions for private non-commercial acts, experimental acts and breeding other varieties; optional farm-saved-seed exception within reasonable limits (Art. 15). Minimum term: 20 years, 25 for trees and vines (Art. 19).
UPOV membership
Trinidad and Tobago bound by the 1978 Act
UPOV’s status list records Trinidad and Tobago as a member bound by the 1978 Act from 30 January 1998, following deposit of its instrument of accession in December 1997.
EPA · Article 149
“Shall consider acceding”
Under the 2008 CARIFORUM–EC Economic Partnership Agreement, the CARIFORUM States shall consider acceding to the UPOV Convention as revised in 1991. The provision obliges consideration; it does not require accession.
UPOV · 2021
Legislative assistance to Trinidad and Tobago
UPOV’s performance report for 2021 records meetings with Trinidad and Tobago government officials on legislative matters and lists Trinidad and Tobago among countries to which UPOV provided comments on laws.
UPOV · 2016 and 2023
Discussions on amendment and a drafting-office meeting
Official UPOV records refer to 2016 discussions with Trinidad and Tobago on proposals to amend its plant-variety legislation and the procedure for accession to the 1991 Act, and to a 2023 meeting involving Trinidad and Tobago’s Assistant Chief Parliamentary Counsel. The published record confirms the meeting but does not disclose enough detail to conclude that UPOV drafted the legislation.
TTIPO · November 2021
The IP Office’s case for UPOV 1991
TTIPO explained that the existing law covered only a limited range of plant families and said consideration should be given to accession to UPOV 1991, presenting stronger protection as supporting innovation, food security, investment and commercialisation.
CarIPI · 2021–2023
Regional plant-variety-protection cooperation
A CarIPI policy presentation records a regional cooperation paper prepared with UPOV and the CPVO and circulated to Caribbean states, and a CARICOM proposal that ministers endorse plant-variety protection and consider joining UPOV, accepted at COTED officials level and presented to ministers in October 2021. Trinidad and Tobago officials later took part in technical training and a study visit. This documents cooperation; it does not establish compulsion.
Extracts are summarised from the document of record, which is linked above. Where a passage is disputed, this newsroom will publish the correction alongside the extract.