Abstract
Genetic use restriction technologies (GURTs) were developed specifically to protect seed companies' property rights by rendering the progeny of proprietary seed sterile. This chapter examines the legal basis for GURTs. It is argued that the deployment of GURTs raises serious policy concerns over the substitution of private technological regimes for publicly enacted legal regimes. It is pointed out that the key US legal decisions regarding the application of patent, trade secrecy and attendant licences are poorly decided and incoherent even on their own terms, let alone when extended to new methods of plant variety use restriction.