If your application is successful, based on the report of the technical examination, you will be granted protection for your plant variety for 25 years, subject to the payment of annual renewal fees.
Provisional Protection
If your application for protection has not been granted yet, you are entitled to provisional protection for your plant variety. This means that you are able to take legal proceedings in respect of the plant variety for infringement activities that took place between the date of publication of the application and date of grant. However, such legal proceedings should commence only after the plant variety protection has been granted.
Invalidity
Any party can challenge the validity of your grant of plant varieties protection on the grounds that:
- The plant was not novel and distinct at the time of grant;
- The plant variety was not uniform or stable at the time of grant; or
- The protection has been granted to a party who is not entitled to the grant.
Any party may also apply to the Court to challenge the validity of a registered denomination on the ground that it did not meet the required registration criteria.
Cancellation
Any party may apply to cancel the grant of protection on specific grounds such as the plant variety is no longer stable or uniform.
Infringement and enforcement of your plant variety protection
Your rights as the owner of a plant variety are infringed if someone performs any act described in the Scope of Grant of Protection without the consent of the owner in respect of the propagating material and/or harvested material of the plant variety.
As the owner of the plant variety, you can take civil legal action against an infringing party, including seeking relief in the form of an injunction to stop the infringing action, demanding for the profits gained by the infringing party at your expense and/or, seeking damages for the loss suffered.