What is a plant variety right?

A plant variety right is an intellectual property right granted to a plant breeder who creates a cultivated plant variety that is new, distinct, homogenous (that is sufficiently uniform) and stable (that is able to remain true to its description after repeated propagation).  In New Zealand, such a right is granted under the Plant Variety Rights Act 1987.  The Act applies to all types of plants and fungi, but not to bacterium or algae.  For a right to be granted under the Act an acceptable denomination (or variety name) must be proposed which must conform to internationally accepted guidelines set by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).

A plant variety will only be considered to be new if there have been no consented sales or offers for sale of the propagating material, whole plants or harvested material of the plant variety, in New Zealand for more than 12 months prior to the date of the application, or overseas for more than four years (for non-woody species) or more than six years (for woody species) before the date of the application.

The plant variety must be distinct from all commonly known varieties existing at the date of the application.  Distinctness can be in one or in a combination of morphological characteristics (such as shape or colour) or physical characteristics (such as disease resistance).

The benefits of holding a Plant Variety Right include: the right to license others to produce for sale and to sell propagating material of the protected plant variety (and thus collect royalties from the commercialisation of the variety); the right to take action against others who are infringing, for example, by selling seeds or plants of the protected variety without permission, or using the registered name of the protected variety in relation to another variety.

A Plant Variety Right is granted for a term of 20 years in the case of non-woody species or 23 years in the case of woody species, subject to payment of an annual grant fee.

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