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To enhance beans, breeders need free access to a wide array of bean germplasm, but with the current climate of protectionism and intellectual property (IP) rights, that free exchange of germplasm has been severely curtailed in recent years. Not only have IP rights restricted free and liberal exchange of bean germplasm but the same rules contributed to a recent example of plant piracy. The system of plant patents and plant variety protection in the US was used effectively to protect a yellow bean variety from Mexico. The yellow bean variety “Enola” was successfully protected by both plant (no. 5894079) and plant variety protection (no. 9700027) patents. Using DNA analysis, Pallottini et al. (2004) proved that Enola was identical to the Azufrado Peruano 87 variety developed and released in Mexico in 1987. The AP87 variety had simply been transported to the US and was claimed to be unique because yellow beans were a new market class in the US. The patent was successfully challenged in court by CIAT for the Commission of Genetic Resources for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a clear example of plant piracy. Before being refuted, the plant patent had the potential to jeopardize the entire system of free exchange of bean germplasm and its use in future breeding efforts to improve bean varieties for the public good. This issue opened a new discussion on the ownership of plant germplasm and the role of IP rights in controlling its use (Gepts 2004).