Home > IP Topics Index > Putting Intellectual Property to Work: Experiences from Around the World > The University of California’s Strawberry Licensing Program > Editor's Summary, Implications and Best Practices

This chapter by Bennett and Carriere describes one of the most successful plant variety licensing programs carried out by a public sector research organization today: the strawberry licensing program at the University of California (UC). Strawberry breeders at UC create varieties that are then protected using plant patents in the US and plant breeders’ rights (PBRs) in most other countries around the world. The new strawberry plants are licensed directly to nurseries by the UC itself within the US and Canada. Outside the U.S. and Canada, UC relies on business partners referred to as “master licensees” (essentially exclusive distributors) as intermediaries. A master licensee is provided with exclusive rights within a defined territory that includes the right to issue nonexclusive sublicenses to nurseries within the territory.

Although UC and its licensing partners worldwide seek plant breeder’s rights for UC strawberry cultivars compliant with the Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), such protection is unavailable in some territories. As a result, the UC licensing program and its master licensees are active in expanding the scope of protection for plants in some countries worldwide. A successful approach has been to build grassroots support for plant IP by coupling access to cultivars with availability of IP for those cultivars.

Given that UC is a public institution, California growers benefit in two ways under the structure of the UC strawberry licensing program. For the first two years after a new variety is released, it can only be grown in California. Thereafter, even though licensed worldwide, growers outside of California have to pay more under a three-tiered royalty structure. Growers in California pay a preferential rate of only $3/1000 plants, other growers in the US and Canada pay $4.50, and growers outside of the US and Canada pay $10.50. In addition, all licensees, regardless of location, also pay a research fee of $1/1000 plants.

These structures help to maintain a balance between the local and global impacts of a public sector agricultural research program. While the California Strawberry Commission provides $350,000 to the strawberry breeding program annually, derived from checkoffs charged to California growers, the research fees collected provide $650,000 annually, and the royalties charged generate about $4.5 million. The royalty income however, is divided between the university, the inventors personally, and the breeding program. Today, the strongest market growth for California-bred strawberry varieties is coming from China, Brazil, Turkey, and Europe. To the extent that breeders employed by the University of California are providing a valuable service to growers around the world, they are supported through the royalties and research fees collected—rather than through taxes paid to the state or California or through checkoffs paid to the California Strawberry Commission. In a number of such “public” research endeavors, where the impacts are felt locally and globally, a licensing mechanism for generating research funds may not only be feasible, it may be more efficient and equitable.

Key Implications and Best Practices

Given that IP management is heavily context specific, these Key Implications and Best Practices are intended as starting points to be adapted to specific needs and circumstances.

For Government Policymakers

• IP protection of plant varieties and a licensing structure that gives preference to local growers helps to maintain a balance between the local and global aspects of a public sector breeding program. Indeed, in such an endeavor where the benefits of research are felt locally and globally, a tiered licensing mechanism for generating research funds may be the most efficient and equitable mechanism possible.

For Senior Management (university president, R&D manager, etc)

• The success of the University of California (UC) strawberry-breeding program is linked, through its licensing activities, to serving its constituents: the strawberry growers of California and also of the world.
• A coordinated, local/global strategy has worked quite well in the UC strawberry-breeding program, driving the success and spreading the benefits worldwide of UC’s R&D efforts.

For Scientists

• Alignment of your research program with a well defined economic need and implemented via a robust licensing structure, can help to assure long-term support of your program as well as its relevance to society … both locally and globally.

For Technology Transfer Officers

• Many are surprised when they learn that one of the major licensing success stories of the UC involves strawberries. However, a world-class research program can work wonders when combined with a well-devised marketing program for the licensing of its research results. Indeed, the UC strawberry-licensing program represents a model system worth considering for any crop.