[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1197 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        H.R.1197

                       One Hundred Fifth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
the twenty-seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-
                                  eight


                                 An Act


 
To amend title 35, United States Code, to protect patent owners against 
    the unauthorized sale of plant parts taken from plants illegally 
                   reproduced, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Plant Patent Amendments Act of 
1998''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--The Congress makes the following findings:
        (1) The protection provided by plant patents under title 35, 
    United States Code, dating back to 1930, has historically benefited 
    American agriculture and horticulture and the public by providing 
    an incentive for breeders to develop new plant varieties.
        (2) Domestic and foreign agricultural trade is rapidly 
    expanding and is very different from the trade of the past. An 
    unforeseen ambiguity in the provisions of title 35, United States 
    Code, is undermining the orderly collection of royalties due 
    breeders holding United States plant patents.
        (3) Plant parts produced from plants protected by United States 
    plant patents are being taken from illegally reproduced plants and 
    traded in United States markets to the detriment of plant patent 
    holders.
        (4) Resulting lost royalty income inhibits investment in 
    domestic research and breeding activities associated with a wide 
    variety of crops--an area where the United States has historically 
    enjoyed a strong international position. Such research is the 
    foundation of a strong horticultural industry.
        (5) Infringers producing such plant parts from unauthorized 
    plants enjoy an unfair competitive advantage over producers who pay 
    royalties on varieties protected by United States plant patents.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
        (1) to clearly and explicitly provide that title 35, United 
    States Code, protects the owner of a plant patent against the 
    unauthorized sale of plant parts taken from plants illegally 
    reproduced;
        (2) to make the protections provided under such title more 
    consistent with those provided breeders of sexually reproduced 
    plants under the Plant Variety Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 2321 et 
    seq.), as amended by the Plant Variety Protection Act Amendments of 
    1994 (Public Law 103-349); and
        (3) to strengthen the ability of United States plant patent 
    holders to enforce their patent rights with regard to importation 
    of plant parts produced from plants protected by United States 
    plant patents, which are propagated without the authorization of 
    the patent holder.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENT TO TITLE 35, UNITED STATES CODE.

    (a) Rights in Plant Patents.--Section 163 of title 35, United 
States Code, is amended to read as follows:

``Sec. 163. Grant

    ``In the case of a plant patent, the grant shall include the right 
to exclude others from asexually reproducing the plant, and from using, 
offering for sale, or selling the plant so reproduced, or any of its 
parts, throughout the United States, or from importing the plant so 
reproduced, or any parts thereof, into the United States.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to any plant patent issued on or after the date of the enactment 
of this Act.

SEC. 4. ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC PATENT INFORMATION.

    (a) In General.--The United States Patent and Trademark Office 
shall develop and implement statewide computer networks with remote 
library sites in requesting rural States such that citizens in those 
States will have enhanced access to information in their State's patent 
and trademark depository library.
    (b) Definition.--In this section, the term ``rural States'' means 
the States that qualified on January 1, 1997, as rural States under 
section 1501(b) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 
1968 (42 U.S.C. 379bb(b)).

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.