Fair Seeds for Farmers Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9681 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 9681

  To amend the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act to limit intellectual
        property protection for plants, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 14, 2026

Mr. McGovern (for himself and Mr. Casar) introduced the following bill;
          which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

  To amend the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act to limit intellectual
        property protection for plants, 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 ``Fair Seeds for Farmers Act''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION FOR PLANTS.

    The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (35 U.S.C. 1 note; Public Law
112-29) is amended--
            (1) in section 33, by adding at the end of the section
        heading the following: ``for human organisms''; and
            (2) by inserting after such section the following (and
        conforming the table of contents appropriately):

``SEC. 33A. LIMITATION ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION FOR PLANTS.

    ``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law--
            ``(1) no protection may be provided under any Federal law
        with respect to a plant, plant variety, or plant germplasm,
        except pursuant to a law described in subsection (b); and
            ``(2) no contractual obligation or agreement that may be
        allowable under the laws described in subsection (b) that
        limits the use of a plant, plant variety, plant germplasm, or
        other biological material for research, breeding,
        experimentation, seed saving, or propagation may be enforced.
    ``(b) Laws Described.--The laws described in this subsection are
the following:
            ``(1) The Plant Variety Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 2321 et
        seq.).
            ``(2) Chapter 15 of title 35, United States Code (commonly
        known as the `Plant Patent Act of 1930').
    ``(c) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Germplasm.--The term `germplasm' means plant material
        capable of propagation, including seeds, pollen, tubers, or
        rootstock for use in breeding, conservation, or research.
            ``(2) Plant variety.--The term `plant variety' means a
        plant grouping within a single botanical taxon of the lowest
        known rank that can be defined by the expression of the
        characteristics resulting from a given genotype or combination
        of genotypes, distinguished from any other plant grouping by
        the expression of at least one characteristic and considered as
        a unit with regard to the suitability of the plant grouping for
        being propagated unchanged. A plant variety may be represented
        by seed, transplants, plants, tubers, tissue culture plantlets,
        and other matter.
    ``(d) Effective Date.--
            ``(1) In general.--Subsection (a) shall apply to--
                    ``(A) any application for a patent that is pending
                on, or filed on or after, the date of enactment of this
                section; and
                    ``(B) any contractual obligation or agreement
                entered into on or after the date of enactment of this
                section.
            ``(2) Prior applications.--Subsection (a) shall not affect
        the validity of any patent issued on an application to which
        paragraph (1) does not apply.''.
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