New Plant Varieties

– Law No. 385 of August 11, 1994, on the Protection of Seeds and Plant Varieties.
– Law No. 995 of November 14, 1996, which approves the International Convention for the Protection of Obtainment of Plants.

Membership in International Conventions

– Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since June 20, 1987.
– Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Stockholm Act (Law No. 300 of January 10, 1994), since May 28, 1994.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement (ratified by Law No. 444 of November 10, 1994).
– International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), 1978 Act, since February 8, 1997.
– The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille), since August 30, 2014.

Filing

Filing Office: applications for obtaining protection of new plants should be applied before the Ministry of Agriculture and Catering.

Applicant: any physical person or corporation. Any applicant should appoint an agent who should be an agricultural engineer.

Foreigners: citizen or resident of a UPOV country has the same rights as a local citizen.

Condition of protection: the new plants should be distinguishable, homogeneous and stable.

Novelty: the plant variety should be absolutely new. It should not have received publicity in any other country. The plant variety must be defined by a sole name.

Remark: the name of the new variety cannot be an existing trademark. However, a mark can be added to the name of the variety.

Filing requirements for an application (to be sent to resident agent):
1. Power in favor of the agent;
2. Name of the variety and name of the breeder;
3. Complete specification;
4. Attestation of novelty;
5. Priority claim.

Examination Procedure

A Technical Committee to Qualify New Varieties is the responsible Examiner.

Publication and observations from third parties: the new variety should be published before its issuance. Publication can be in any local newspaper.

Examination of the plant variety: performed by the Examiner based on the three conditions requested by law.

Examination of the plant variety’s name: it is performed by the registrant office of the Ministry of Agriculture in order to avoid confusion with previous existing names of varieties.

Granting

Beginning of protection: date of granting.

Duration: fifteen to twenty years, depending on the species.

Annuities: it is necessary to pay annuities during the whole duration of the protection.

Scope of protection: the proprietor has absolute rights to produce, sell, import, export or offer all or part of the plant, and all elements for reproduction of the variety. The proprietor also has the right to oppose third parties which may request a similar or identical variety.

Assignment and granting of license: possible, by private agreement.

Modification of Protection after Registration

Action of revocation: possible, by any interested party.

Forfeiture of the certificate of plant variety: possible, if the requirements established by the law are not accomplished.

Compulsory license: no provision.