Introduction to Plant Variety Rights

What is a Plant Variety Right?

If you are a person who breeds plants, and you have discovered and developed a new plant variety, you can seek protection for your new plant varieties by applying for a Grant of Protection for a Plant Variety with IPOS.

Benefits

Having a grant of protection means that you have the exclusive right to prevent others from doing any of the following acts in respect of the propagating material and/or harvested material of the protected plant variety without your authorisation:

• Production or reproduction

• Conditioning for the purpose of propagation

• Offering for sale

• Selling or other forms of marketing

• Exporting

• Importing

• Stocking for any of the purposes mentioned above

This right, however, does not extend to use of the protected plant variety for private, non-commercial, experimental, research purposes, or for the purpose of breeding other varieties.

Obtaining the grant of protection also means that you are able to license the right to another party, collect royalties and commercially produce the variety.

Term of protection

Once your plant variety is granted, it will be protected for 25 years from the date of grant, so long as it is renewed every year.

How to register

The registration process can be broken down into 3 steps:

• Step 1: Check registration criteria for a Plant Variety Right

• Step 2: Apply for a Plant Variety Right

• Step 3: Forms and fees for new applications