– The Seed Industry Law of August 4, 2005, amended on November 14, 2011 (effective from May 15, 2012), on June 1, 2012 (effective from June 2, 2013), on March 23, 2013 (partly effective from March 23, 2013, wholly effective from June 2, 2013), on December 27, 2016 (partly effective from June 28, 2017, wholly effective from December 28, 2017), on December 10, 2019 (effective from June 11, 2020), on June 15, 2021 (effective from December 16, 2021), and on December 27, 2022 (partly effective from December 28, 2023, wholly effective from June 28, 2024).
– The New Plant Varieties Protection Law of June 1, 2012 (effective from June 2, 2013), amended on March 23, 2013 (effective from June 2, 2013), on August 13, 2013 (effective from August 13, 2013), on July 20, 2015 (effective from July 20, 2015), on December 2, 2016 (effective from December 2, 2016), on November 28, 2017 (effective from May 29, 2018), on December 10, 2019 (effective from June 11, 2020), and on February 11, 2020 (effective from February 11, 2020).

Note: the New Plant Varieties Protection Law is newly established to provide for application, examination and registration, etc., of new plant varieties, so that they can be handled separately from the Seed Industry Law.

– International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), since January 7, 2002.

Applicant: the breeder or his successor. A person not residing in the country must appoint a resident agent. Where a variety is bred jointly, the application for protection of the variety must be made jointly by all the joint owners.

Kind of plants: a breeder’s right can be protected on all plant varieties including strawberry, raspberry, tangerine, blueberry, cherry and sea algae from January 7, 2012.

Conditions of protection: plant varieties must be new, distinct, uniform and stable and also must have their own names respectively.

Novelty: a plant is deemed to be new if a seed or its harvested material has not been sold for use in Korea more than one year prior to the application, or more than four years (six years for a fruit tree or a forest tree) prior to the application anywhere else in the world.

Distinctiveness: a plant is deemed to be distinct if it is clearly distinguished from the varieties in common knowledge at the time of the application.

Uniformity: a variety is deemed to be uniform if its intrinsic characteristics are uniform sufficiently considering the variation which is expected during propagation.

Stability: a variety is deemed to be stable if its intrinsic characteristics remain unchanged after repeated propagation or cycles thereof.

Denomination: a variety must have its own denomination and the denomination must meet the requirements regulated by the New Plant Varieties Protection Law.

Examination: after an application is first examined with respect to the formality requirements, the application is laid open in the Varieties Laid-Open Gazette. At this time, any person may furnish the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, or the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries with information, together with evidence. The applicant has a provisional exclusive right to work the variety from the laid-open date. The variety which is laid open is examined with respect to the substantive requirements. The examination on novelty and denomination is made through documents and the examination on distinctiveness, uniformity and stability is made through a breed test as well as documents. Where an application is found to meet all the requirements, the application will be registered and then published.

Opposition: none.

Appeal: an applicant can appeal against a decision of rejection within thirty days after the date of receiving the notice of the decision to refuse the application of the variety.

Duration: the protection lasts twenty years from the date of the registration and in case of fruit trees and forest trees twenty-five years from the date of the registration.

Effects of registration: a person having the right of the registered variety has an exclusive right to commercially or industrially work the variety, its harvested material and products manufactured directly with the harvested material. Further, the effects of the registered variety extend to varieties derived fundamentally from the registered variety, varieties not distinguished clearly from the registered variety and varieties which can be produced with repeated use of the registered variety.

Limits of the variety right: the effects of the right of the registered variety do not extend to the working of the variety for non-commercial self-consumption, making an experiment, or breeding another variety.

Cancellation and invalidation: where the registered variety does not meet all requirements, the right of the registered variety may be cancelled or invalidated by reexamination or Invalidation Trial.

Appeal against the decision of cancellation or invalidation is available before a Trial Committee, the Patent Court and finally the Supreme Court.