If you develop a new plant variety, you can protect your IP with plant breeder’s rights
Plant breeder’s rights are exclusive commercial rights for a registered variety of plant.
The rights are a form of intellectual property (IP), like patents, trade marks and designs.
The plant breeder’s rights (PBR) scheme protects plant breeders and gives them a commercial monopoly for a period of time.
This encourages plant breeding and innovation, and means that a large and growing pool of new plant varieties is freely available to anybody when the protection periods lapse.
How do you do that?
Usually be ensuring that your staff or distributors sign Confidentiality Agreements.
Coca Cola never applied for patent protection which means that they never had to disclose their secret formula, They used Trade Screts to protect their IP.
What can be registered?
Only eligible new or recently exploited varieties can be registered..
New plant varieties
New varieties of all plant species are potentially registrable. A new variety is one that has not been sold with the breeder’s consent beyond the allowable time period.
Plant Breeders Rights
- These are rights granted to the breeder of a new variety of plant that gives the breeder exclusive control over the propagating material (including seed, cuttings, divisions, tissue culture) and harvested material (cut flowers, fruit, foliage) of a new variety for a number of years.
We can help with looking after all your IP needs including in New Zealand and other countries where you may need protection. Call 07 49576787