Cite as: 534 U. S. 124 (2001)
Breyer, J., dissenting
apply only to the set of plants that can meet the easier, but not the tougher, criteria.
I do not find this argument convincing. For one thing, it is not clear that the general patent law requirements are significantly tougher. Counsel for Pioneer stated at oral argument that there are many more PVP certificates than there are plant patents. But he added that the major difference in criteria is the difference between the utility patent law's "nonobviousness" requirement and the specific Acts' requirement of "newness"—a difference that may reflect the Patent Office's more "rigorous" examination process. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 26, 30. But see S. Doc., at 20-21 (suggesting little difference because patent office tends to find "nonobviousness" as long as the plant is deemed "new" by the Department of Agriculture).
In any case, there is no relationship between the criteria differences and the exemptions. Why would anyone want to limit the exemptions—related to seedplanting and research—only to those new plant varieties that are slightly less original? Indeed, the research exemption would seem more useful in respect to more original, not less original, innovation. The Court has advanced no sound reason why Congress would want to destroy the exemptions in the PVPA that Congress created. And the Court's reading would destroy those exemptions.
The Court and Justice Scalia's concurrence also rely upon the interpretive canon that disfavors repeal by implication. The Court, citing Matsushita Elec. Industrial Co. v. Epstein, 516 U. S. 367 (1996), says that "there is simply no evidence" that the PPA was meant to preclude § 101 protection for sexually reproduced plants. Ante, at 137. But reliance on the canon of "implied repeal" is misplaced. The canon has traditionally been embraced when a party claims that a later statute—that does not actually modify an earlier statute—implicitly repeals the earlier legislation. E. g., 516 U. S., at 380-381. That canon has no relevance to the
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