Institute of Agricultural Research

The National Agricultural Research Institute’s broad policy on the Protection of Intellectual Property and the rules which it enforces with respect to this make it a reliable partner in the exchange of knowledge. INIA is fully aware of the importance of international regulations to which the exchange of all kinds of knowledge are subject. It is not only concerned with its own technological assets but also those of its partners.

In the area of research products INIA is working with Plant Breeders Rights, Patents, Copyrights and Trade Marks among others.

All INIA’s plant varieties are incorporated in the Protected Varieties Register of the Ministry of Agriculture which is subject to Law 19.342 in the framework of the UPOV Act of 1978 signed by Chile. In addition, Chile will shortly sign the UPOV Act of 1991. This will guarantee safety to all parties in the exchange of plant germplasm between foreign companies, universities or international centers. In this area INIA has many agreements involving the payment of royalties to seed companies from Europe, the USA and Latin America.

For other kinds of research products such as bio-technological processes or bio-pesticides INIA applies the Patent System subject to Law 19.039 and its modifications. This law is aligned to the Paris Convention on the Protection of Industrial Property, Trade and Intellectual Property Rights Issues, TRIPS from the World Trade Organisation and the recently signed international agreement between Chile and the European Union and the United States.

In the area of software INIA uses the copyrights system of the Intellectual Property Register under the auspices of the Ministry of Education.

By implementing this policy INIA expects to increase its capacity to develop all kinds of agreements with foreign institutions. In so doing, we guarantee our partners fair and equitable allocation in the ownership of all intellectual property rights arising directly or indirectly from the projects.