How to protect your plant variety certificate?

Have you thought about protecting your plant varieties?

🌱You have created a new plant variety and wish to protect your rights? You are the holder of a plant variety certificate and a third party infringes your rights ?

protection obtentions végétales

Dreyfus assists you in protecting your new varieties and in defending your interests during their exploitation in France and abroad.

Why protect your plant varieties?

New and improved plant varieties are the results of successful plant breeding, which could take up to 15 years and requires great skill and knowledge in the process. As a reward for the investment and sustained and long-term breeding efforts, the Plant Variety Protection is an important system, in which Plant varieties can be protected by a Plant Variety Certificate (PVC) when certain specific requirements are met. This Certificate provides legal protection to breeders up to 30 years.

How to protect your plant varieties?

Plant Variety Protection is a complex legal matter in France and in the European Union. Nonetheless, the Dreyfus team is delighted to help you understand the issues and to advise properly and efficiently on how to protect your discoveries.

We will accompany you and assist you during the formal registration with the competent entities such as the secretariat of the French National Office for Plant Breeders’ Rights (INOV) in order to obtain a French certificate under the framework of Act No. 2011-1843 of 08 December 2011 on Plant Variety Rights, the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) to obtain a certificate from the European Union based on the Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 of 27 July 1994 on Community plant variety rights or the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) to obtain an international certificate in application of the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention.

It has been observed that the number of applications for INOV has decreased, the applicants would rather pursue the Community application because a national PVC is no longer enforceable if the plant variety has been protected by the Community PVC. However, the French system particularly grants its PVC holders the privilege that they can enjoy an exclusive right to produce, reproduce, package for the purpose of reproduction or multiplication, offer for sale, sell or market in any other form, export, import or hold, for any of these purposes, propagating materials of the protected variety within the French territory at a low cost.

Within the French territory (including New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna Islands), the candidate plant must fulfil several requirements: It must (i) be qualified as a variety constituting a plant grouping of a botanical taxon (L623-1 French Intellectual Property Code (IPC)), (ii) be the result of research, crossbreeding or stabilisation, (iii) not be sold or given to a third party for exploitation for more than one year in France/ the EU (L623-5 IPC), (iv) be new and distinctive (L623-2 IPC), (v) be sufficiently uniform in its relevant characteristics (L623-2 IPC), (vi) remain stable (L623-2 IPC) and (vii) have a name approved by INOV (R.623-6 IPC).

Besides our administrative guidance, we assist you during the technical examination of your plant variety. The goal is to successfully submit the application!

The Dreyfus team also offers a personalized support throughout the life of your certificate by assisting you in the commercial and legal management of your protected plant variety. For instance, we may advise you to sell licenses, to enter into a contractual relationship with third parties and to recommend you on how to use your certificate to make it more profitable. In addition, we help you negotiate and conclude sale and distribution agreements.

Ultimately, the Dreyfus team offers you suitable advice in the context of legal proceedings, particularly in the event of counterfeiting, fraudulent practices or contractual conflicts.

🌱With the support of Dreyfus, you are able to peacefully create, value and protect your plant varieties!