News from the Seed Liaison Initiative: Issue #3

USDA Agricultural Marketing Service sent this bulletin at 02/22/2024 03:59 PM EST

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Issue #3                                                       February 2024

Seed Sower

Welcome to Seed Sower: News from the Seed Liaison, a bulletin of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). USDA’s Seed Liaison initiative provides a point of contact within the USDA to help those who work with seeds navigate a complex system. The initiative aims to enhance transparency in the seed marketplace; amplify the voices of growers, plant breeders, and others in the seed system; and promote broader access to seeds for research and plant breeding.

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If you have missed an issue of Seed Sower, you can view past issues on our webpage.

Factsheet: Variety Labeling Requirements in the Federal Seed Act 

USDA published a factsheet this month to help the agricultural community understand a March 2023 Notice to Trade about variety labeling requirements in the Federal Seed Act. Farmers should expect to have access to the variety name of their seed no later than when the seed is scheduled to ship, and usually at the time of purchase. It’s important that farmers have all the relevant information needed to choose the best seed and supplier for their situation. Check out the factsheet here. 

New Meeting Series Invites the Public to Learn about the U.S. Patent System 

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will host its first meeting as part of a new Public Engagement Partnership Series on March 1, 2024, from 1:00 – 5:00 pm ET. The meeting is free and open to the public and will be held both virtually and in person at USPTO’s headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Participants will gain foundational education about the patent system and the agency’s practices and policies. Representatives from the public interest community, including a public plant breeder, will discuss their experiences with the patent system. Learn more and register here. 

Accessing Seeds from a Depositary                                                                              

The Seed Liaison website is home to a number of resources that help the public navigate U.S. patents related to plant varieties, plant traits, and breeding methods. One of these resources provides instructions on how to access patented or off-patent seed from an International Depositary Authority. The Patent Act requires patent applicants to include enough written information that a person of ordinary skill in the art could make and use the invention. This description, known as “enablement,” is important to the intellectual property system. With biological material like seeds, a person may need access to the physical material to make or use the patented invention. In these cases, the applicant is often asked to deposit the material with an International Depositary Authority. Learn more about the process in this resource. The Seed Liaison team would like to hear about your experiences accessing deposits. Please submit any comments to SeedLiaison@usda.gov.

Pending Patents Published December - February 

Every Thursday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office publishes new pending patents to its online Patent Public Search tool. The Seed Liaison publishes a weekly summary of pending patents related to seed-bearing plants. View the archive of past pending patent newsletters here. Published patent applications help the public learn about the state of the art in particular industries. The public is also invited to file third party preissuance submissions of prior art to pending applications for examiners to consider when reviewing new patent claims. To sign up to receive a weekly email with pending patents related to seed, click here.