Szonja is Hungarian and holds a degree in Law from ELTE Budapest University, an MA in French and European Law from Panthéon-Assas University (Paris), and an L.LM. in Intellectual Property and Competition Law from the University of Liège in Belgium.

Before joining ISF, Szonja worked for nearly 15 years in Euroseeds first at the Legal and Policy Officer and then as the Director of Intellectual Property and Legal Affairs. Prior to that she worked at the Budapest office of the French law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel and at the European Commission. Szonja is based in Brussels, Belgium, where she lives with her husband and three sons.

One of the key drivers of innovation in the seed sector has always been the availability of the broadest possible gene pool for breeding. However, this availability meets more and more challenges coming from private and public rights.

It is a known thesis that intellectual property rights, in the broad sense, stimulate innovation. This is no different in plant breeding, but it is important to take a closer look on how we can best balance the need to keep genetic resources available for further breeding and the requirement of having a strong intellectual property system allowing to recoup investments and keeping the incentive for further innovation. In the past years new breeding techniques have brought many new solutions to challenges that plant breeding faces with accelerated population growth and environmental and climate challenges. At the same time, the innovations coming through new breeding techniques require different types of IP rights and careful attention to the right balance between protection and access has been more and more a topic of discussion. On the other hand, regulations on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing from their utilization have become more and more complex.

The presentation will discuss how public regulations and private rights can be conceived and implemented to create and enabling environment for accelerating innovation in plant breeding.