SANYA, Sept. 22. /TASS/. China Seed and PICC, a unit of China's national insurance company in Hainan, have signed an insurance contract at Yazhou Agricultural Park in Sanya that provides protection against infringement of intellectual property rights on new plant varieties. This was reported by the Sanya Daily newspaper.

The agreement protects China Seed's rights to new plant varieties Chuanzhong-3A, Quanyou-607 and Zhongzhong-R1607. This is the country's first comprehensive new plant rights insurance contract. It will cover all costs from verification of intellectual property infringement, economic damages and legal expenses.

As the newspaper points out, these three plant varieties have required a lot of time, resources and investment, so they need special protection of intellectual property rights.

The Yazhou Agricultural Park Administration and PICC set up a joint working group and developed an insurance program for research development. Resident companies have been offered various insurance options for their products, and PICC has created a special "green corridor" for them to complete the insurance policy process in one day.

According to the newspaper, China Seed is currently exploring the possibility of insuring intellectual property rights for other plants.

The Yazhou Agricultural Science and Technology Cluster was established in 2019. Its total area is about 70 square kilometers. The agricultural park includes the Nanfang agricultural breeding base: so far, scientists have been able to breed more than 20,000 new crop varieties there, which is about 70% of China's national figure.