Granting of breeder's right
There is a worldwide system for protecting a breeder's intellectual property - the breeder's right. The basic principles of this system are laid down in the UPOV (International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) Convention.
The process of granting breeders' right in Latvia is regulated by the Plant Varieties Protection Law.
In order for a breeder to register their newly developed variety in the Latvian State Register of Protected Plant Varieties and obtain the protection of the breeder's right, the following steps must be taken:
- The breeder submits an application for the breeder's right, stating the date on which the application fee was paid and enclosing the necessary documents:
- the description of the variety or, in the absence of an examination of the uniformity and stability (AVS) of the variety, form of the technical description of the variety;
a letter of authorisation if the applicant is not the breeder;
the documents referred to in Article 15 of the Plant Variety Protection Law, if convention priority is claimed.
- the description of the variety or, in the absence of an examination of the uniformity and stability (AVS) of the variety, form of the technical description of the variety;
The amount of the fee is set out in the Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No 173 of 13 March 2012 "Regulations on the State Fee in the Field of Plant Variety Protection".
- The State Plant Protection Service verifies the information provided in the application, the applicant's eligibility to submit the application, the novelty of the variety and the conformity of the denomination of the variety with international requirements.
- The next step is to submit the variety for examination for distinctness, uniformity and stability (AVS) and send the material to the AVS testing site.
In Latvia, no AVS testing of varieties is carried out, so for variety testing a country is sought that has an institution specialised in testing varieties of the species concerned and has received international accreditation for such testing.
The shipping of the required quantity of varietal material and the costs involved are covered by the applicant. The phytosanitary requirements of the country concerned for the variety material (e.g. fruit trees and berries) must also be taken into account. This means that if the applicant is not already registered in the Official Register of Professional Operators, it is necessary to register in order to carry out the necessary phytosanitary checks on the variety material.
- After the successful AVS test has been completed, a decision can be taken to grant the breeder's right if the variety also meets the other criteria for the decision - it is new within the meaning of Article 4 of the Plant Variety Protection Law and the name of the variety meets the conditions of Article 20 of this Law.
- After the decision to grant the breeder's right is taken, the variety is entered in the Latvian State Register of Protected Plant Varieties for 25 years, and potatoes, grapevines and tree species - for 30 years. A state fee is to be paid annually for the protection of the breeder's right during the period of protection of the variety in accordance with the Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No 173 of 13 March 2012 on the State Fee for the Protection of Plant Varieties.
Latvian State Register of Protected Plant Varieties
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 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.
The 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 a breeder's licence is required to reproduce and market the variety.
If a decision is taken to grant breeder's rights for 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 State plant protection service contains information on applications received for the grant of breeder's rights (for varieties with provisional protection) and information on protected varieties, indicating the start and end of the term 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.