Plant Variety Protection
Expert Plant Variety Protection & Registration Malaysia
What is Plant Variety Protection?
Plant Variety Protection (PVP), or Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR) is a form of intellectual property that safeguard new plant varieties, much like patents protect inventions. They grant breeders exclusive control over the commercialization of their new variety, including rights to produce, sell, condition, import, and export propagating material.
Criteria for Registration of Plant Variety Protection
- Novelty/New – it hasn’t been sold or made available to others for commercial purposes.
- Distinctness/clearly distinguishable – it must have at least one unique characteristic, such as flower colour, leaf shape, fruit size, or disease resistance.
- Uniformity/sufficiently uniform – individual plants of the same variety should be consistent and not show major differences when propagated.
- Stability/stable – its essential traits stay the same after repeated propagation or across generations.
Who May Apply for Plant Variety Protection?
- A breeder.
- The employer of the breeder.
- The successor in title of the breeder.
- A farmer or group of farmers, local community or indigenous people who have carried out the functions of a breeder.
- Any government or statutory body which has carried out the functions of a breeder.
Duration of Plant Breeder’s Right
The breeder’s right to a registered plant variety shall take effect from the filing date of an application and be protected for a period of:
| Type of Application | Duration of Plant Breeder’s Right |
|---|---|
| For qualified applicant | 20 years 25 years (trees and vines/perennial plant) |
| Only for plant varieties which are bred, or discovered and developed by farmers, local community, or indigenous people | 15 years 25 years (trees and vines/perennial plant) |
Why File a Plant Variety Protection?
If you’ve created a new plant variety, filing for plant variety protection (PVP) is a smart way to protect your hard work:
- Protect your new plant variety: Plant variety protection gives you the legal right to control who can grow, sell, or use your new plant.
- Earn money from your work: With plant variety protection, you can license your variety to other farmers or companies and earn royalties when they use it.
- Get protection in other countries: This helps you grow your reach and your income beyond your local market.
- Support for both breeders and farmers: Plant breeder’s rights protect the person who created the variety. But in many countries, farmers’ rights are also respected—meaning farmers can save seeds from protected plants for their own use.
- Encourage innovation and better crops: By protecting new plant varieties, PVP encourages breeders to keep developing better crops.