PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION
Plant variety protection, also known as the Plant Breeder’s Right system, is a type of intellectual property that aims to give the breeder of a plant variety an exclusive right to exploit his creation. The breeder is the person who has created or discovered and developed a plant variety.
Our Firm provides comprehensive advice for the selection of the most suitable way of protection of the different plant varieties. Our tasks include the registration with the National Register of Cultivar Property (Registro Nacional de la Propiedad de Cultivares – RNPC) and the National Register of Cultivars (Registro Nacional de Cultivares – RNC).
The purpose of the RNPC is to protect the property rights of the creators of new plant varieties, in recognition of their breeding activity.
Brief Explanation of the Legal System
In Argentina, plant varieties are protected through the granting of a property title and it is possible to protect plant varieties of any species.
The registration of a cultivar in this Register does not enable it to be commercialized, so in order to protect a plant variety and also to market it, that variety must be registered both in the RNPC and in the RNC.
Argentina is governed by the 1978 Act of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), to which our country adhered in December 1994. Being a member of this organization allows us to have our cooperation work in this field recognized by other member States and, in this way, to establish a homogeneous and harmonized language under this International Convention.
Essential Requirements
For a plant variety to obtain a property title, it must comply with the following requirements:
- Distinctive.
- Uniform.
- Stable.
- New (commercial novelty).
- Denomination.
- Payment of fees.
Procedure
The National Seeds Institute (Instituto Nacional de Semillas), through the Directorate for the Registration of Varieties (Dirección de Registro de Variedades), verifies:
- That the origin of the variety is declared.
- That the variety is distinctive, uniform, and stable.
- That the denomination proposed is appropriate, in order to avoid synonymies and confusion.
Duration
The property title is valid for twenty years from its granting date and the causes of cancellation of the breeder’s right are:
- Withdrawal by the breeder of his rights. In such a case, the variety will become of public use.
- When it is demonstrated that the right was obtained by fraud to third parties.
- At the end of the legal period of protection.
- When the breeder is not able to send the living sample of the protected cultivar, with the same characteristics as the description for which the right was granted, to the enforcement agency.
- Failure to pay the maintenance fee within a period of six months from the date of the demand for payment.
FOREIGN NETWORK
Our Firm offers assistance for the protection of plant varieties worldwide through a large network of specialized foreign associates.
This allows us to follow our clients’ international expansion, designing with