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Plant Breeders' Rights (PBR) are a form of intellectual property rights enabling breeders of new plant varieties to have the exclusive right to produce and sell propagating material of their new plant varieties. The existence of effective property rights has been pointed to as a stimulus of increased R&D and productivity. Canada has had legislation to provide PBR protection for about two decades, and is considering further strengthening of the regulatory framework. However, there are few studies that have examined the effectiveness of the legislation on crop productivity. This thesis investigates the hypothesis that the adoption of wheat varieties qualifying for Plant Breeders' Rights has increased overall wheat yields and rate of yield increase. The yield response function models are applied to industry data for western Canada and Alberta, respectively. The empirical results show that the PBR Act had a relatively small impact on wheat yields. Among wheat classes, it had a positive impact for Durum wheat in Alberta.