Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR)
- Your valuable new plant variety can be protected by obtaining Plant Breeder’s Rights from the Plant Breeder’s Rights Office, which is part of IP Australia.
- We recommend that you obtain Plant Breeder’s Rights before you commence marketing of your new plant variety.
- Plant Breeder’s Rights cannot be obtained if the plant variety has been sold in Australia for more than 12 months.
What are Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR)?
Plant Breeder’s Rights last up to 25 years for trees and vines, and for up to 20 years for all other varieties.
They provide the plant breeder with exclusive rights:
- To reproduce and sell the new plant variety and propagating material (seeds, cuttings etc.);
- To import or export the new plant variety and propagating material;
- To license others to do the same.
However, in most cases, farmers will be allowed to save seed for re-planting from a legitimately grown crop, without infringing Plant Breeder’s Rights.
Applications for Plant Breeder’s Rights (acquiring rights)
There is a two-part process.
First stage: Providing a written description of the new plant variety, its parentage and how it differs from other closely related varieties.
Second stage: Comparative growing trials to demonstrate distinctiveness, uniformity and stability.
How can we assist you?
- By assisting you with applications for Plant Breeder’s Rights;
- By advising you whether other forms of protection (in particular, patents or trademarks) may be appropriate, either as an adjunct to, or instead of, Plant Breeder’s Rights;
- Monitoring the status of your Plant Breeder’s Rights applications and registrations to ensure that they do not lapse;
- Preparing status and portfolio reports for management of your business’s intellectual property assets.
