Plant variety rights

Why do we need the plant variety rights regime?

The plant variety rights regime encourages the development of new plant varieties, and these will have desirable characteristics for growers and consumers, for example higher yield or higher nutritional value or greater disease resistance.

It provides an opportunity for the plant breeder to recoup some of the investment that they’ve made in the development of that new variety. But it’s important that the market opportunity for the variety owner is appropriately balanced with the needs of growers and consumers.

What rights does the regime grant?

The plant variety rights regime grants the rights holder the exclusive right sell or produce for sale the seeds or other propagating material of the protected variety.

However for some plants that are grown from cuttings, for example apples or kiwi fruit, the regime also grants the holder the right to grow the plant for commercial production. The rights are time limited; they last for up to either 20 or 23 years depending on the nature of the variety.

How do breeders recoup their investment?

Breeders recoup their investment usually through growers paying a royalty to the variety owner and this is similar to the royalties paid to musicians and authors for example under the copyright regime.

However there are certain circumstances in which the permission of the variety owner is not needed and one example of this is when a breeder uses a protected variety in their plant breeding programme.

Will these rights change as a result of this review?

Bringing our regime in line with UPOV 91 which is the most recent international agreement on plant variety rights will strengthen plant breeders’ rights and will slightly narrow the exceptions that exist under the current regime.

There’s more information on this both on our website and in the issues paper.

Have your say on the Plant Variety Rights Act 1987 review.

To better understand the scope of plant variety rights, it can be useful to consider them within the context of the plant breeding process and the development of a new variety.

Sourcing the plant material

Plant breeding will generally either begin with an existing variety or with plants from an existing population, for example from the wild. However simply discovering an individual plant will not entitle someone to a plant variety right. The original plant must be developed in to a new cultivated variety.

Developing a new variety

Plant breeding generally involves selection over many generations to strengthen desirable genetic traits. Modern techniques such as identifying genetic markers linked to desirable traits have improved and quickened this process. Other new techniques involve directly changing the genetic make-up of plants. Plants resulting from these processes will currently be regulated as genetically modified organisms, and require approval by the Environmental Protection Authority, to be imported, developed or released.

Getting a plant variety right

The plant variety rights regime only becomes relevant once a breeder has developed a new variety and wants intellectual property protection to commercialise that variety. To be eligible for a plant variety right a new variety must be new, distinct from other varieties, uniform within each generation of that plant and stable across generations, and must also be assigned a suitable name.

An application is then submitted to the Plant Variety Rights Office which is part of the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand or IPONZ. The Plant Variety Rights Office will ask for details such as the varieties origin, breeding, and propagation. The variety is then examined to determine eligibility. This process can take several years, but if it meets the criteria then the plant variety right is granted.

Have your say on the Plant Variety Rights Act 1987 review.