Plant variety rights

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Breeding of new varieties requires more and more financial investment. Breeding companies are used to investing around 15% of their sales in breeding research. It is thus of great importance to protect them from uncontrolled exploitation of their varieties. Nonetheless plant varieties cannot be patented in Europe. A specific protection system has therefore been created in 1961 at international level, known as “Protection of new varieties of plants”. This system is support by the International Convention for the Protection of new Varieties of plants, ruled by UPOV, French acronym for International Union for the Protection of new Varieties of plants.

Its implementation relies on this two offices :

• INOV at the French level (National Office for Plant Breeder’s Rights)
• CPVO at the European level (Community Plant Variety Office).

These organisms may ask GEVES to carry out technical examination of varieties.

The breeder’s right provides to the holder an exclusive right on propagating material of the protected variety to produce and reproduce, to package for the purpose of propagation, to offer for sale, to sell or market and to export and import. This exclusive right applies as well to harvested material of the protected variety, including entire plants or parts of plants, or may also apply to products directly made form harvested material of the protected variety, when breeder did not have reasonable opportunity to exercise his right on the propagating material. This right also extends to varieties which are essentially derived from the protected variety and varieties whose production requires the repeated use of the protected variety.

The duration of breeder’s right shall not be shorter than 25 years, and especially for trees and vines, this duration shall not be shorter than 30 years.

The holder is in charge of the implementation of his breeder’s right.

16/05/2013