PLANT BREEDERS' RIGHT

Exclusive Rights on New Plant Varieties

Exclusive rights are granted to a person who reclaims or finds or develops a new plant variety. Protection is provided for new, different, monotonous and settled plant varieties.

The propagated or harvested material of a variety is for one year domestically and four years abroad, backwards from the date of application for the breeder's right. The variety is considered as new if it has not been sold or presented to the public by the right owner or with his consent for use in trees and vines up to six years ago.

The variety is deemed as settled if it is distinguished from the known varieties at the time of application or priority right, or if it shows uniformity in terms of the relevant features, except for possible changes depending on the reproduction method used differently, and if it remains the same during uniform and successive reproductions or at the end of certain reproduction periods, without changing the relevant characteristics. The breeder's rights of new plant varieties are specially protected under the Law No. 5042 on the Protection of Breeders' Rights Regarding New Plant Varieties. In order to benefit from protection within the scope of this law, the owner of the plant variety must file an application.  As a result of the examinations after the application, if it is concluded that the necessary conditions are fulfilled, the breeder's right is recorded to the Register and a "Breeder's Right Certificate" is given to the right owner.

Plant Breeder’s Rights and Implementation in Turkey

The "Regulation on the Protection of Breeders' Rights of New Plant Varieties" and "Farmer Exemption Implementation Principles" which prepared for the implementation of the Law No. 5042 were published in the Official Gazette on August 12, 2004 and entered into force..

Turkey joined to the UPOV (The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) as 65th member on 18 November 2007.

 UPOV MEMBER COUNTRIES LIST

Why Variety Protection?

Implementations of the new plant variety protection system based on the principles of the 1991 decision of the U P O V (The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants ) convention contribute to the development of agriculture. Under favour of these practices, breeders obtain resources for the breeding of new varieties with the income of the varieties they develop, and the breeders seek more disease-resistant, higher quality, safer and more efficient properties in newly developed varieties. With the system of protection of plant varieties, the development of these characteristics is encouraged and the rights of breeders who develop varieties are protected by this system.

Terms of Variety Protection

The applied variety must meet the following general conditions;

1-Innovation; The propagated or harvested material of a variety is for one year domestically and four years abroad, backwards from the date of application for the breeder's right. The variety is considered as new if it has not been sold or presented to the public by the right owner or with his consent for use in trees and vines up to six years ago.

2-Diverseness; The variety is deemed as different if it is distinguished from the known varieties at the time of application or priority right.

3-Unıformity; The variety accepted as uniformity in terms of the relevant features, except for possible changes depending on the reproduction method used differently.

4-Stillness; The variety considered as “settled” if it remains the same during uniform and successive reproductions or at the end of certain reproduction periods, without changing the relevant characteristics.

5- Naming; The name of a protected variety becomes its common name. Anyone who sells or otherwise commercializes reproductive material of a protected variety must use this name of the variety.

The name of the variety must allow the variety to be clearly identified and must be different from a nomenclature that describes an existing variety of the same botanical species or a related species. Also, it must meet other requirements regarding application procedures in the regulations.

Who Can Apply?

Real and legal persons residing in our country as Turkish citizens can apply. The persons, who have right to apply within the terms of UPOV Convention, benefits from the right to apply by appointing an agent who residing in Turkey.

Application Stages

Filing the Application:

For the application, the file must be submitted with bank receipt indicating that the application fee has been paid, the application form and requested documents.

Examination of the Application:

Applications are examined by a commission formed with the participation of experts of the subject and a legal advisor from the Legal Consultancy. Innovation and naming are the key issues in the examination.  Applications are accepted if no deficiency is detected in the examination made by the commission.

Publications of the Application:

A number is given to each accepted application and enrolled in the register.
The bulletin which includes applications is published. If there is no objection to the application within the time period, the technical examination phase is started.

Technical Examination:

The aim of this examination is:
a) verifying that the variety belongs to the specified botanical class,
b) determining that if the variety is different, monotonous and settled,
c) the preparation of a variety specification certificate, in case the variety complies with the conditions in clauses (a) and (b).

FYD tests are conducted by Variety Registration and Seed Certification Center. The applied varieties are compared with similar varieties of the same species.

Registration of Breeder’ Right

After the technical examination structure sends the examination reports to the General Directorate, the Breeder's Right Registration Committee is formed by the General Directorate based on the establishments and plant groups. The varieties which discussed and evaluated in the committee, are protected by the decision of the committee by procedure of voting.

The protected variety is given a name in accordance with the principles in the relevant legislation, and the breeder's right of the variety is registered and enrolled to the register with this name. Then, the bulletin containing the varieties whose breeder rights have been registered is published.

Terms of Protection

The protection period is twenty-five years from the registration of the breeder's right. This period is thirty years for trees, vines and potatos.