A variety is a set of plants which, within a botanical taxon (botanical taxonomy), is ranked last, irrespective of whether the requirements for the grant of the breeder's right have been fully complied with. It may be defined as a characteristic expression of genotypes or combinations of genotypes, as a set of plants differing from any other set of plants by at least one distinct characteristic. A variety is considered to be an entity which remains unchanged by propagation.
Published: 30.04.2022.
The State Register of Protected Plant Varieties of Latvia is a list of varieties that have been granted intellectual property protection in the territory of Latvia and whose use for income-generating purposes requires the permission of the variety owner.
New varieties registered under the Plant Variety Protection Law in Latvia are included in the Latvian State Register of Protected Plant Varieties.
The Latvian State Register of Protected Varieties of Plants (the Register) consists of information on applications and information on protected varieties.
Information on applications - reflects all received and registered applications for the granting of breeder's rights. Varieties are in this 'applications received' status until all the conditions for the granting of the breeder's right (eligibility to apply, novelty of the variety, suitability of the denomination and AVS test) have been verified and fulfilled and a decision has been taken whether or not to grant the breeder's right for the variety concerned. During this period, these varieties are placed under interim protection, which means that the breeder's authorisation is required to reproduce and market the variety.
If a decision is taken to grant a breeder's right in respect of the variety concerned, the variety becomes a 'protected variety' and remains on the Register until the expiry of the specified period of protection and commercial exploitation of the variety is subject to the authorisation of the holder of the breeder's right throughout the period of protection of the variety.
The website of the Service contains information on applications received for the grant of a breeder's right (for varieties with provisional protection) and information on protected varieties, indicating the beginning and end of the period of protection of the variety, as well as the holder of the breeder's right (the variety owner) to whom to apply for authorisation to reproduce and market the variety.
Within the European Union (EU), the European Commission has created a single EU Register of varieties to improve traceability and facilitate the dissemination of information on fruit tree and berry varieties that can be marketed in the EU. The Register of Varieties is a compilation of the national variety registers of all Member States and is available on the European Commission's website.
This means that any variety included in the EU Register of Varieties can be propagated and marketed in Latvia.
Until January 2017, fruit tree and berry varieties in Latvia were not required to be registered, but on 18 January 2017, Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No 16 "Rules on the establishment of the list of fruit tree and berry varieties" entered into force. The Regulations lay down the requirements and procedures for the inclusion, maintenance and exclusion of varieties from the list of varieties.
The Latvian Catalogue of Plant Varieties is a list of plant varieties in which the seeds of the varieties included may be certified or examined as standard seeds, seeds of conservation varieties or seeds of vegetable varieties to be grown under certain conditions and sold in accordance with the regulatory enactments on seed production and seed marketing, as well as on the recognition of conservation varieties or vegetable varieties to be grown under certain conditions and on the circulation of seeds.
The catalogue shall include varieties of cereals, fodder plants, oil and fibre plants, beet, potatoes and vegetables for a period of 10 years.