Application for plant breeder’s rights

If you wish to obtain plant breeder’s rights for a variety, you must file an application with the authority granting plant breeder’s rights. In the Netherlands that is the Raad voor het Kwekersrecht (Dutch Board for Plant Breeder’s Rights) in Wageningen. You must e.g. provide a technical description of the variety and specify its origin and a name. You must also state whether any application procedures are pending in other countries. After you have filed the application, a search will be performed in the relevant registers, followed by a trial planting, in which the new variety’s distinctiveness, homogeneity and stability will be tested. If your variety meets all the requirements and if its name has been approved, the variety will be recorded in the national varieties register. This application procedure will take about one to two years. You can also have your variety protected throughout Europe. In that case you must file an application for all the EU Member State with the Community Plant Variety Office in France.