In the 1970s a group of seventeen nations including the United States, Germany and Holland founded the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) to guarantee patent rights for their plant varieties.
一九七○年代，美、德、荷等十七個國家也共同成立了「植物新品種保護國際聯盟」，保障參與國的品種專利。