Upholding plant variety rights to propel Taiwan’s agriculture forward

The COA explains that “The Plant Variety and Plant Seed Act” promulgates 219 types of plants applicable for variety right protection. As long as a variety conforms to the five main criteria, ~~including~~namely novelty, distinctiveness, uniformity, stability, and proper denomination, the breeder may apply for PVR to the COA. The COA will then conduct evaluation on the accepted cases to confirm if the criteria is met and grant PVR to those that do. Breeding a new variety is intellectually demanding and takes years of hard work. Producing, propagating, selling, or exporting/importing a plant variety in the scope of PVR protection must always accompany the consent of the PVR owner. Otherwise, the act would constitute an infringement, and the owner is entitled to file for prohibition or injunction or request damage remedy on the civil court. For the sustainable development of Taiwan’s agriculture, the COA urges all to respect plant variety rights and never propagate, commercialize, or cultivate PVR-bearing plant varieties without the consent of the right owner in case of breaking the law.
Plant variety rights (PVR) are a type of intellectual property rights that is unique and essential to agriculture. PVR not only protects the interests of breeders, encouraging citizens to innovate on new plant varieties, but also facilitates the import of superb foreign varieties. Proper PVR protection enables domestic breeders to continuously improve their varieties to cultivate diversified agricultural products, regenerating and propelling Taiwan’s agriculture forward. The Council of Agriculture (COA) indicates that once the breeder is entitled with PVR, he or she will be able to prohibit others from producing, breeding, marketing, or exporting the variety without the breeder’s consent. On that note, we urge our citizens to pay due attention to the plant variety rights, especially during commercial use such as online marketing or sales, to forge a more conducive agricultural business environment.

PVR information transparently available online for easy access
The COA indicates that not only the approved PVR owners have their rights protected, but those new applications of newly bred varieties will also ~~have their application cases~~be promulgated, giving them provisional protection during the PVR review process. And those that do have PVR case approved may request remedies for any commercial use of the plant variety occurring up to two years prior to the approval date. To publicize knowledge and information about PVR, the COA established the “Plant Variety Rights Protection System (https://pvr.afa.gov.tw).” Everyone is welcome to visit the platform and easily search for the applicants, names, main photos, promulgation date, and approval status of each application case as well as information related to PVR protection.

Respecting intellectual property rights to plant varieties for the advancement of agriculture
The COA explains that “The Plant Variety and Plant Seed Act” promulgates 219 types of plants applicable for variety right protection. As long as a variety conforms to the five main criteria, ~~including~~namely novelty, distinctiveness, uniformity, stability, and proper denomination, the breeder may apply for PVR to the COA. The COA will then conduct evaluation on the accepted cases to confirm if the criteria is met and grant PVR to those that do. Breeding a new variety is intellectually demanding and takes years of hard work. Producing, propagating, selling, or exporting/importing a plant variety in the scope of PVR protection must always accompany the consent of the PVR owner. Otherwise, the act would constitute an infringement, and the owner is entitled to file for prohibition or injunction or request damage remedy on the civil court. For the sustainable development of Taiwan’s agriculture, the COA urges all to respect plant variety rights and never propagate, commercialize, or cultivate PVR-bearing plant varieties without the consent of the right owner in case of breaking the law.

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Upholding plant variety rights to propel Taiwan’s agriculture forward