Parent an exclusive license to commercially exploit their respective rights in the 2012 HB4 patents. The license related to additional patents under the 2012 agreement will remain in force until the expiration of the last 2012 HB4 patent in 2033, unless terminated earlier in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
The main countries in which we seek patent protection are in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, India, China, Ukraine, Russia and certain other countries in Europe.
As of the date of this report, we, in our capacity as sublicensee (either as exclusive or non-exclusive licensee), have 252 patents and patent applications concerning technologies such as improved yield, drought tolerance, increased performance in high saline environments, NUE and WUE technologies and herbicide resistance, Intacta technology, ZFP®, RS, RG and OX technologies, PlantArcBio and UHC technology for use in our products. In some instances, our sublicenses are limited in terms of duration, geography and/or field of use.
We seek additional protection of our seed and germplasm intellectual property through PVP certificates, which preserve a variety owner’s exclusive rights to sell, reproduce, import, and export a plant variety and our seed. The duration of PVP protection varies among jurisdictions and is 20 years from the time of issue in the United States and 20 and 15 years from the time of issue in Argentina and Brazil, respectively. As of the date of this report, we do not have PVP certificates in the United States. In addition, in Argentina, we have received, as owner and/or as licensee, registrations with the RNC (Registro Nacional de Propiedad de Cultivares) for 16 wheat varieties, 14 soybean varieties and two sunflower varieties, all of which are authorized for our marketing in Argentina. We are currently seeking registration with the RNC (Registro Nacional de Propiedad de Cultivares) for 42 soybean varieties. We have also received the registration for 10 soybean varieties and 6 wheat varieties in Uruguay, one soybean variety in South Africa, one soybean variety in Paraguay and one soybean variety in Bolivia. We are currently seeking registration for two additional wheat varieties in Uruguay, two soybean varieties in Bolivia and two soybean varieties in Paraguay.
We seek to protect our non-patent intellectual property, such as know-how and regulatory data, through contracts and confidentiality agreements. Know-how generated by the activities of our companies is protected by specific services agreements or employment agreements. Employment agreements include undertakings regarding confidentiality and assignment of inventions and discoveries. Our regulatory data is protected by standard confidentiality and data protection mechanisms. We have 27 trademarks and 22 trademark applications in Argentina, Brazil, the United States and Uruguay, including Bioceres Semillas, environmentally customized organism, Biosem, BIOX, Bioceres Crop Solutions, Trigall Genetics, HB4, ECOSOJA and ECOTRIGO. Rizobacter has 346 trademarks and applications in Argentina and 302 trademarks and applications abroad, in Brazil, China, the United States, Uruguay, Turkey, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Canada, Bolivia, South Africa, India and the EU. These include RIZOBACTER, RIZOSTAR, RIZOOIL and SIGNUM, which is a single-component bio-inducer for soybeans that maximizes their ability to generate nitrogen, RIZOSPRAY Extremo, which is a last generation adjuvant that enhances the effects of the active ingredients to be sprayed on crops, RIZOFOS, which increases the availability of phosphorus in soil and acts favorably on root development, RIZOLIQTop, which is a bacterial inoculant that boosts metabolic and physiological performance of bacteria, RIZOPACK, which includes integrated products that deliver a combination of seed therapies and/or bacterial protectants, and RIZODERMA, a Trichoderma harzianum based fungicide.
We will continue to file and prosecute patent, PVP certificate and trademark applications in the United States and foreign jurisdictions, as well as maintain trade secrets as is consistent with our business plan, in an ongoing effort to protect our intellectual property.
Government Regulation
We are subject to agriculture, health and the environmental regulations in the countries in which we operate. We must obtain and comply with various permits and licenses from government authorities and municipalities in the jurisdictions in which we operate. The laws and regulations we are subject to will continue to evolve as there are advances in biotechnology and our other businesses. In the United States, the FDA and the USDA are primarily responsible for overseeing food regulation and safety, although many other federal agencies also play a role in food regulation. The USDA has jurisdiction over certain genetically engineered crops through the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services, or APHIS. In January 2017, APHIS proposed significant amendments to its Part 340 regulatory framework that would, among other things, clarify the types of genetically engineered plants subject to regulation thereunder. In November 2017, however, APHIS withdrew its proposed rule and stated that it would “begin a fresh stakeholder engagement aimed at exploring alternative policy approaches.” That process appears to remain ongoing. In Argentina, the National Seed Institute of Argentina (Instituto Nacional de Semillas), as part of the HB4 wheat approval that is subject to approval in Brazil, issued Resolution 535/2021, establishing audit measures for the production of HB4 wheat materials under our HB4 wheat identity preserved production program. In this regard, we will have to provide production and processing information on a regular basis to such authority.