Article 4

[Botanical Genera and Species Which Must or May Be Protected;

Reciprocity; Possibility of Declaring that Articles 2 and 3 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property Are Applicable]

 

(1)
  This Convention may be applied to all botanical genera and species.
 

(2)
  The member States of the Union undertake to adopt all measures necessary for the progressive application of the provisions of this Convention to the largest possible number of botanical genera and species.
 

(3)
  Each member State of the Union shall, on the entry into force of this Convention in its territory, apply the provisions of the Convention to at least five of the genera named in the list annexed to the Convention.

Each member State further undertakes to apply the said provisions to the other genera in the list, within the following periods from the date of the entry into force of the Convention in its territory:
 

(a)

within three years, to at least two genera;
 

(b)

within six years, to at least four genera;
 

(c)

within eight years, to all the genera named in the list.
 

(4)
  Any member State of the Union protecting a genus or species not included in the list shall be entitled either to limit the benefit of such protection to the nationals of member States of the Union protecting the same genus or species and to natural and legal persons resident or having their headquarters in any of those States, or to extend the benefit of such protection to the nationals of other member States of the Union or of the member States of the Paris Union for the Protection of Industrial Property and to natural and legal persons resident or having their headquarters in any of those States.
 

(5)
  Any member State of the Union may, on signing this Convention or on depositing its instrument of ratification or accession, declare that, with regard to the protection of new varieties of plants, it will apply Articles 2 and 3 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
 

Article 5

[Rights Protected; Scope of Protection]

 

(1)
  The effect of the right granted to the breeder of a new plant variety or his successor in title is that his prior authorization shall be required for the production, for purposes of commercial marketing, of the reproductive or vegetative propagating material, as such, of the new variety, and for the offering for sale or marketing of such material. Vegetative propagating material shall be deemed to include whole plants. The breeder's right shall extend to ornamental plants or parts thereof normally marketed for purposes other than propagation when they are used commercially as propagating material in the production of ornamental plants or cut flowers.
 

(2)
  The authorization given by the breeder or his successor in title may be made subject to such conditions as he may specify.
 

(3)
  Authorization by the breeder or his successor in title shall not be required either for the utilization of the new variety as an initial source of variation for the purpose of creating other new varieties or for the marketing of such varieties. Such authorization shall be required, however, when the repeated use of the new variety is necessary for the commercial production of another variety.
 

(4)
  Any member State of the Union may, either under its own law or by means of special agreements under Article 29, grant to breeders, in respect of certain botanical genera or species, a more extensive right than that set out in paragraph (1) of this Article, extending in particular to the marketed product. A member State of the Union which grants such a right may limit the benefit of it to the nationals of member States of the Union which grant an identical right and to natural and legal persons resident or having their headquarters in any of those States.
 

Article 6

[Conditions Required for Protection]

 

(1)
  The breeder of a new variety or his successor in title shall benefit from the protection provided for in this Convention when the following conditions are satisfied:
 

(a)

Whatever may be the origin, artificial or natural, of the initial variation from which it has resulted, the new variety must be clearly distinguishable by one or more important characteristics from any other variety whose existence is a matter of common knowledge at the time when protection is applied for. Common knowledge may be established by reference to various factors such as: cultivation or marketing already in progress, entry in an official register of varieties already made or in the course of being made, inclusion in a reference collection or precise description in a publication.
 

A new variety may be defined and distinguished by morphological or physiological characteristics. In all cases, such characteristics must be capable of precise description and recognition.
 

(b)

The fact that a variety has been entered in trials, or has been submitted for registration or entered in an official register, shall not prejudice the breeder of such variety or his successor in title.
 

At the time of the application for protection in a member State of the Union, the new variety must not have been offered for sale or marketed, with the agreement of the breeder or his successor in title, in the territory of that State, or for longer than four years in the territory of any other State.
 

(c)

The new variety must be sufficiently homogeneous, having regard to the particular features of its sexual reproduction or vegetative propagation.
 

(d)

The new variety must be stable in its essential characteristics, that is to say, it must remain true to its description after repeated reproduction or propagation or, where the breeder has defined a particular cycle of reproduction or multiplication, at the end of each cycle.
 

(e)

The new variety shall be given a denomination in accordance with the provisions ofArticle 13.
 

(2)
  Provided that the breeder or his successor in title shall have complied with the formalities provided for by the national law of each country, including the payment of fees, the grant of protection in respect of a new variety may not be made subject to conditions other than those set forth above.
 

Article 7

[Official Examination of New Varieties; Provisional Protection]

 

(1)
  Protection shall be granted only after examination of the new plant variety in the light of the criteria defined in Article 6. Such examination shall be adapted to each botanical genus or species having regard to its normal manner of reproduction or multiplication.
 

(2)
  For the purposes of such examination, the competent authorities of each country may require the breeder or his successor in title to furnish all the necessary information, documents, propagating material or seeds.
 

(3)
  During the period between the filing of the application for protection of a new plant variety and the decision thereon, any member State of the Union may take measures to protect the breeder or his successor in title against wrongful acts by third parties.
 

Article 8

[Period of Protection]

 

(1)
  The right conferred on the breeder of a new plant variety or his successor in title shall be granted for a limited period. This period may not be less than fifteen years. For plants such as vines, fruit trees and their rootstocks, forest trees and ornamental trees, the minimum period shall be eighteen years.
 

(2)
  The period of protection in a member State of the Union shall run from the date of the issue of the title of protection.
 

(3)
  Each member State of the Union may adopt longer periods than those indicated above and may fix different periods for some classes of plants, in order to take account, in particular, of the requirements of regulations concerning the production and marketing of seeds and propagating material.
 

Article 9

[Restrictions in the Exercise of Rights Protected]

The free exercise of the exclusive right accorded to the breeder or his successor in title may not be restricted otherwise than for reasons of public interest.

When any such restriction is made in order to ensure the widespread distribution of new varieties, the member State of the Union concerned shall take all measures necessary to ensure that the breeder or his successor in title receives equitable remuneration.
 

Article 10

[Nullity and Forfeiture of the Rights Protected]

 

(1)
  The right of the breeder shall be declared null and void, in accordance with the provisions of the national law of each member State of the Union, if it is established that the conditions laid down in subparagraphs (a) and (b) of paragraph (1) of Article 6 were not effectively complied with at the time when the title of protection was issued.
 

(2)
  The breeder or his successor in title shall forfeit his right when he is no longer in a position to provide the competent authority with reproductive or propagating material capable of producing the new variety with its morphological and physiological characteristics as defined when the right was granted.
 

(3)
  The right of the breeder or his successor in title may become forfeit if:
 

(a)

after being requested to do so and within a prescribed period, he does not provide the competent authority with the reproductive or propagating material, the documents and the information deemed necessary for checking the new variety, or he does not allow inspection of the measures which have been taken for the maintenance of the variety; or
 

(b)

he has failed to pay within the prescribed period such fees as may be payable to keep his rights in force.
 

(4)
  The right of the breeder may not he annulled and the right of the breeder or his successor in title may not become forfeit except on the grounds set out in this Article.
 

Article 11

[Free Choice of the Member State in Which the First Application is Filed;

Application in Other Member States;

Independence of Protection in Different Member States)

 

(1)
  The breeder or his successor in title may choose the member State of the Union in which he wishes to make his first application for protection of his right in respect of a new variety.
 

(2)
  The breeder or his successor in title may apply to other member States of the Union for protection of his right without waiting for the issue to him of a title of protection by the member State of the Union in which he made his first application.
 

(3)
  The protection applied for in different member States of the Union by natural or legal persons entitled to benefit under this Convention shall be independent of the protection obtained for the same new variety in other States whether or not such States are members of the Union.
 

Article 12

[Right of Priority]

 

(1)
  Any breeder or his successor in title who has duly filed an application for protection of a new variety in one of the member States of the Union shall, for the purposes of filing in the other member States of the Union, enjoy a right of priority for a period of twelve months. This period shall run from the date of filing of the first application. The day of filing shall not be included in such period.
 

(2)
  To benefit from the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the further filing must include an application for protection of the new variety, a claim in respect of the priority of the first application and, within a period of three months, a copy of the documents which constitute that application, certified to be a true copy by the authority which received it.
 

(3)
  The breeder or his successor in title shall be allowed a period of four years after the expiration of the period of priority in which to furnish, to the member State of the Union with which he has filed an application for protection in accordance with the terms of paragraph (2), the additional documents and material required by the laws and regulations of that State.
 

(4)
  Such matters as the filing of another application or the publication or use of the subject of the application, occurring within the period provided for in paragraph (1), shall not constitute grounds for objection to an application filed in accordance with the foregoing conditions. Such matters may not give rise to any right in favour of a third party or to any right of personal possession.
 

Article 13

[Denomination of New Varieties of Plants]

 

(1)
  A new variety shall be given a denomination.
 

(2)
  Such denomination must enable the new variety to be identified; in particular, it may not consist solely of figures.

The denomination must not be liable to mislead or to cause confusion concerning the characteristics, value or identity of the new variety or the identity of the breeder. In particular, it must be different from every denomination which designates, in any member State of the Union, existing varieties of the same or a closely related botanical species.
 

(3)
  The breeder or his successor in title may not submit as the denomination of a new variety either a designation in respect of which he enjoys the protection, in a member State of the Union, accorded to trade marks, and which applies to products which are identical or similar within the meaning of trade mark law, or a designation liable to cause confusion with such a mark, unless he undertakes to renounce his right to the mark as from the registration of the denomination of the new variety.

If the breeder or his successor in title nevertheless submits such a denomination, he may not, as from the time when it is registered, continue to assert his right to the trade mark in respect of the above-mentioned products.
 

(4)
  The denomination of the new variety shall be submitted by the breeder or his successor in title to the authority referred to in Article 30. If it is found that such denomination does not satisfy the requirements of the preceding paragraphs, the authority shall refuse to register it and shall require the breeder or his successor in title to propose another denomination within a prescribed period. The denomination shall be registered at the same time as the title of protection is issued in accordance with the provisions of Article 7.
 

(5)
  A new variety must be submitted in member States of the Union under the same denomination. The competent authority for the issue of the title of protection in each member State of the Union shall register the denomination so submitted, unless it considers that denomination unsuitable in that State. In this case, it may require the breeder or his successor in title to submit a translation of the original denomination or another suitable denomination.
 

(6)
  When the denomination of a new variety is submitted to the competent authority of a member State of the Union, the latter shall communicate it to the Office of the Union referred to in Article 15, which shall notify it to the competent authorities of the other member States of the Union. Any member State of the Union may address its objections, if any, through the said Office, to the State which communicated the denomination.

The competent authority of each member State of the Union shall notify each registration of the denomination of a new variety and each refusal of registration to the Office of the Union, which shall inform the competent authorities of the other member States of the Union. Registrations shall also be communicated by the Office to the member States of the Paris Union for the Protection of Industrial Property.
 

(7)
  Any person in a member State of the Union who offers for sale or markets reproductive or vegetative propagating material of a new variety shall be obliged to use the denomination of that new variety, even after the expiration of the protection of that variety, in so far as, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (10), prior rights do not prevent such use.
 

(8)
  From the date of issue of a title of protection to a breeder or his successor in title in a member State of the Union:
 
Prev page Next page
1 2 3 4 5

Top of page