Plant varieties

Plant breeders' rights, also called as plant variety rights, are rights granted to the breeder of a new variety of plant.

The Bundessortenamt located in Hannover is responsible for granting of plant breeders’ rights or plant variety rights and national listing of varieties and thus supports the manifold activities to promote plant breeding and biological diversity. Plant breeders’ rights protect the plant breeder’s ownership of an intellectual property and promote plant breeding and the breeding progress made in agriculture and horticulture. A breeder or discoverer of a new variety can apply for plant breeders’ rights for new varieties from the whole plant kingdom.

National listing serves to protect the consumer and ensures the provision of high quality seed and planting stock material of resistant and high performance varieties for farmers and horticulturists. Therefore varieties of agricultural species are tested for characteristics of value, they are tested for yield, quality, health, and cultivation qualities. This regulates the addition of only high-value varieties to the national list and protects the interests of farmers and other seed consumers.

The necessary requirements to get a granted plant breeders' rights are: capable to be distinctive, uniformity, stability, novelty and registrable variety denomination. For hop, potato and vine the maximum term of protection is 25 years. For tree variety the maximum term of protection is 30 years.

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) located in Angers in France provides an intellectual property right for new varieties of plants valid throughout 27 member states of the European Union.