Here you will find the answers to your questions about prolongation, Plant Breeders' Rights and listing.
You have received a letter with an overview of the varieties. These are eligible for prolongation of the registration. Varieties listed in other years are not yet applicable for prolongation of registration. Also varieties that have been removed already from the national variety register are not applicable for prolongation of registration.
The fees that are calculated are cost-recovering. If costs have been already incurred (that means that activities have already been carried out for your application), then we will calculate these costs. You can contact team support regarding this topic.
The correspondence will be submitted to the maintainer who is currently known in the administration of the Board for plant varieties. The reason is that after listing there is exclusively contact with the maintainer of the concerned variety. The Board doesn’t have up to date data on agents or commercial representatives.
Our advice is to use the online module via MyNaktuinbouw. The data for your company is already pre-completed on the form. If this is not possible, you can download the application form for prolongation of registration from the website of the Board for plant varieties.
No, the varieties can be submitted via the module until the mentioned closing date of December 31. This can be done in multiple separate shifts. Ticked varieties will be stored meanwhile. They do not have to be submitted immediately. When you log in a next time, the ticked varieties will still be present in the module.
NB: if varieties are already requested and submitted, then it is not possible anymore to change these through the module. Please contact teamsupport@rasraad.nl.
Unfortunately, you missed the deadline. In exceptional cases, re-application of a variety is possible. Another possibility may be that a third party takes over the maintenance of the variety. For the possibilities and fees you can contact us via teamsupport@rasraad.nl.
Yes, that is possible. You can request access for several persons to the module for prolongation of registration of the Board on MyNaktuinbouw. This can be done on a general e-mail address, that several people use, or on a personal e-mail address.
Several maintainers of the variety are mentioned in the annex of the letter that you received. Besides, this is visible in the online module for prolongation of registration. If you see that one of the varieties of which you are (co-)maintainer is also maintained by another maintainer, you can contact this company.
in order to discuss which company applies for prolongation of registration. In this way, you can divide the costs for prolongation of registration.
Yes, you will remain visible as maintainer if another maintainer has requested already for prolongation of registration. You will only be removed as maintainer if you explicitly request it.
All varieties, which were listed sometime during the year 2015, are supposed to have been registered for the purpose of re-registration on the last day of that year. Example: if a variety is been registered in 2015, then it is supposed to be registered on the 31 December of 2015. Ten years after this date, the registration expires (on 31 December 2025). The effective date of the 10-year registration period will then be January 1, 2026. All varieties that have been prolonged for registration will all be processed with the same date for prolongation.
Yes, this will be drawn up both in NL and GB and sent by e-mail.
No, only varieties that are included for listing in the national variety register and are still being maintained have the possibility for prolongation of registration.
Usually, technical DUS-examination is done by Naktuinbouw (especially for varieties of vegetable and ornamental crops). However, for some crops there are bilateral agreements with examination stations in other countries. These countries are authorised by the CPVO to perform the DUS tests for these crops. You can find the information which countries are authorised for which crops on the website of the CPVO.
In the case of European plant breeders' rights, the CPVO determines where DUS-examination is carried out. If you value examination by Naktuinbouw, you can first apply for national plant breeders' rights and have the report adopted by the CPVO.
If a breeder's right or listing application for a variety has previously been filed abroad, the Board for plant varieties (under certain conditions) bases its decision on the DUS-examination for the earlier application. The Board then take over the foreign report. The research must in any case have taken place in a UPOV-country with sufficient research expertise on the crop. The costs of taking over a report can be found in the fee list.
You can decide to stop the DUS-examination at any time. You will then notify teamsupport@rasraad.nl that you are withdrawing the application. If the examination has not yet started and no further examination costs have been made, the examination costs will be credited in completely.
Please note: If you decide to stop the CGO (Culture and Use Value Study) after 1 year, you must separately also stop the application for the DUS-examination (and withdraw the application for admission). Otherwise, the DUS-examination will continue automatically, and you will be invoiced for it as the applicant.
Sometimes it may be desirable to request postponement of DUS-examination, e.g. maize: the DUS- examination of maize is carried out in France and lasts only 1 year. This examination can be postponed until the results of the first year of CGO are known.
On the application form it can be ticked whether postponement is desired.
The priority date of an application is determined by the date of receipt of the 1st application for plant variety rights in a UPOV-member state. This sets the priority date. You can submit another application in another UPOV-member state within 1 year after the priority date. For this subsequent application, the date of the 1st application (the priority date) will then be used as the application date.
The Board for plant varieties will send a confirmation of this to the applicant with, if necessary, instructions on submission (including the deadline) of the identity sample.
One becomes a maintainer by explicit or non-explicit designation by the Board for plant varieties. Without explicit designation, the applicant for plant breeders' rights and/or listing is the maintainer of the variety. In the European Common Catalogue you can find out who is the maintainer of a particular variety. The EU's plant variety database is a searchable version of this variety list. You can contact team support if you want to know who the maintainers are of a so-called x variety with multiple maintainers.
No. Each application should be made with an official application for listing at the Board for plant varieties. When varieties are applied directly to the implementing organisation for the CGO, the implementing organisation will point out to the applicant that an official application for listing of the variety in the Netherlands is necessary to be included in the CGO-examination.
New plant varieties have improved characteristics such as improved crop yields, higher quality and better resistance to plant diseases. These are important characteristics when it comes to higher productivity and quality of plant varieties. This also includes the fact that improved plant varieties are less environmentally damaging. Advances in agricultural production in different parts of the world are largely due to improved varieties of agricultural crops.
The variety can only be admitted if the variety:
In addition, for varieties of agricultural crops, the CGO (VCU) must have been passed with a positive result.
Plant breeders' rights can be applied by the breeder (grower) of the plant variety. The discoverer (and developer) of a new variety can also apply for plant breeders' rights. A breeder may be, for example, a farmer, a researcher, a research institute or a privately owned breeding company. An authorised representative can also apply for plant breeders' rights on behalf of the breeder. Proxy forms are available for this purpose. If the applicant lives or has its office in a country outside the EU, an authorised representative is required within the Netherlands.
For admission to the catalogue, the authorised person must live within the EU.
You can if the variety is New, Distinct, Uniform and Stable. In English, the last 3 requirements are called "DUS" (Distinct, Uniform and Stable).
Whether the variety meets the DUS criteria will have to be proven by technical examination. As for novelty: the variety may only have been sold for a short period before application. That short period is 1 year in the Netherlands or 4 years outside the Netherlands and 6 years outside the Netherlands for trees and vines.
Successfully breeding and cultivating new plant varieties requires knowledge and skill. In addition, (large-scale) breeding requires significant investments in equipment such as greenhouses, growth chambers, laboratories and expert staff. For many plant species, it takes 10 to 15 years to develop a successful plant variety. Not all plant varieties are successful and even when the new varieties represent a clear improvement over existing varieties, a change in market sentiment may evaporate the opportunity for profit. Breeding new varieties is thus a risky business. This makes it necessary that the investment made in developing a new variety can be recouped. This investment can be recouped through a plant breeder's right for the new variety. In general, it can be said that plant breeders' rights should encourage breeders to produce more productive varieties of better quality. The benefit of developing improved varieties ultimately benefits (also) society as a whole.
At the same time, once a new variety is marketed, it can be easily reproduced. The original breeder is then deprived of the opportunity to derive a longer-term benefit from his newly developed variety and thus recoup his investment. Therefore, developing improved varieties is only profitable if there is a prospect of a "return on investment". It is therefore crucial that the variety can be protected with an effective plant breeders' right that encourages investment in the development of new plant varieties.
The 2005 Seeds and Planting Materials Act allows breeders to protect a newly developed variety with an intellectual property right: plant breeders' rights. The law lists the actions with the propagating material of the new variety - and in some cases with harvested material - that require the permission of the holder of the plant breeder's right. Plant variety rights mean that the permission of the breeder is required when the protected variety is propagated for commercial purposes.
A plant breeders' right can only be granted if the variety:
Yes. The 2005 Seeds and Planting Materials Act is based on the UPOV Convention. This means that the Act includes a breeding exemption allowing the use of varieties protected by plant breeders' rights for the development of new plant varieties.
Therefore, no permission from the holder of the plant variety right is required if the protected variety is used for the development of another variety. Also, the variety (partly) developed with the protected variety may be traded without the permission of the holder of the plant variety right.
A new plant variety must be given a denomination. Before a variety denomination can be finally granted, the denomination is tested because it must meet some conditions. Here, the Board for plant varieties follows the CPVO's-policy laid down in its guidelines. For example, the name must be different from any other name of an already existing variety in the same denomination class. The name must be suitable to be used as a denomination and the name is not in conflict with already existing - older - rights such as, for example, brand names.
We know if a name is acceptable after an internal test via the CPVO-variety finder (read more about the internal naming test). This test takes about five working days. If the name is acceptable it will be published in the official Gazette to see if the name does not convey a conflict with an older right. For three months, those who believe they have an older right can file an objection of the denomination to the Board for plant varieties. All in all, the process of approving a name takes about four months.
UPOV is an international agreement organisation for the protection of cultivation products. The organisation is based in Geneva, Switzerland. UPOV was established in 1961 with the entry into force of the UPOV Convention. UPOV's mission is to provide an effective system of intellectual property protection for new plant varieties, with the aim of encouraging the development of new, improved plant varieties which development benefits society as a whole.
The UPOV Convention provides the legal basis for member states to encourage the development of new plant varieties by providing breeders with a plant breeders' right (an intellectual property right) for new plant varieties. The Netherlands is also a member of the UPOV Convention organisation and therefore has a system of plant breeders' rights based on the UPOV Convention. This statutory system is laid down in the 2005 Seeds and Planting Materials Act.
The Board for Plant Varieties is an independent administrative body and is the only authority in the Netherlands responsible for granting plant breeders’ rights and listing of plant varieties and stands. The Board is supported by the Team Support, which is part of Naktuinbouw.
