Plant breeder’s rights

Plant breeder’s rights are very similar to patent rights, among other rights, in many ways. The Plant Breeder’s Right Act states that anyone who creates a novel plant variety can obtain exclusive rights to it.

The protection arises through registration with the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The protection applies for 25-30 years depending on the type of plant variety and assumes that annual fees are paid. 

The requirements for exclusive rights to a plant variety include that it must be considered to be novel, distinct, uniform and stable. 

The protection means that other actors may not use plant varieties which are identical, derived or do not differ from the registered plant variety sufficiently. The uses that can be prohibited include certain forms of propagation, processing, storage, sale, importing or exporting of the plant variety. 

Excepted from the protection are use for private and non-commercial purposes, experiments and use in the production of new plant varieties.

Learn more about other intellectual property rights in the PRV School online 

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