genera / species

14 years ago

hello gardeners!!!

I'm a law student trying to understand the variety protection system, so I need help from you experts.

If I'm not wrong, plants are identified by a binomial name, which refers both to the genus and the species it belongs to.

Also, a genus covers many species.

Well, the international treaty says that each Stated should protect "at least 15 plant genera OR species".

I'm confused by the preposition OR, because protecting fifteen genera would mean much more than protecting fifteen species.

Fifteen species could theorically all belong to the same genus, and in that case, that State would be protecting just one genus and fifteen species.

On the other hand, the treaty could mean that each State has to protect fifteen genera, which would cover many more species.

Could anyone please explain me this? It would be easier if the treaty said "fifteen genera" or "fifteen species"; but not "fifteen genera or species".

Thank you very much!

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Comments (3)

terrestrial_man
14 years ago
what international treaty?
brandon7 TN_zone7
14 years ago
Yep, something HUGE is missing here. Variety protection (in all instances of which I am aware) pertains to protection of rights regarding cultivars/strains, not to species or genera.

I'm thinking that the OP's statement is something akin to saying that copyright protection must extend to at least two types of books (ie romance novels and sci-fi books).

BTW, the term variety has a very different meaning in popular legal terminology (and even in some crop industries) than it does to the botanist/biologist. When it's used in legal applications, it's almost always used to describe cultivars, and especially seed-strain cultivars.
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freki
14 years ago
UPOV 1991. Qualification for membership.

To answer the OP, legalese is different from taxonomy. IMHO they are just covering all the multi-lingual semantic bases for an international treaty. In real terms it covers patentable cultivars ("variety" is used throughout the rest of the English text). It has no real connection to the scientific usage of the terms "genera" or "species"