Thank you.
Thanks to both the witnesses for being here today.
I'd like to start with Dr. Singh.
You mentioned, I think, 500 varieties that your group has had patents or some IP protection on over the last years. I come from the Okanagan Valley, where we have the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research station. I'm very familiar with its development of tree fruit varieties. For instance, whenever I go travelling in the world and I see cherries for sale, I always ask what kinds of cherries they are. They're almost always cherries developed not only in Canada but in that research station in Summerland.
I want to get a sense of the history of protecting IP for these varieties. One of the most common cherry varieties is Lapins. It has no patent protection; it's used freely around the world.
I know, for the last 20 years or so I think, the Canadian government has been patenting those varieties. Perhaps you can talk about the history of protecting IP on the production of new varieties of plants and anything else for our agricultural sector.