Plant Breeders' Rights

To Whom Does This Apply?

The applicant may be:

• the plant breeder;
• their employer; or
• the legal representative.

Eligible Activities

Varieties of plants that will be protected will have demonstrated that they are:

• new;
• distinct;
• uniform; and
• stable.

Summary

The Legislation

The Canadian Plant Breeders' Rights Act makes it possible for plant breeders to legally protect new varieties of plants. Plant varieties, both sexually and asexually reproduced, may be covered under the legislation for a period of up to 18 years. All plant species, except algae, bacteria and fungi, are eligible for protection.

The owner of a new variety who receives a 'Grant of Rights' has exclusive rights over the use of the variety, and is able to protect their new variety from exploitation by others. The intent of the legislation is to stimulate plant breeding in Canada, to provide Canadian producers with better access to foreign varieties and to facilitate the protection of Canadian varieties in other countries.

Rights of the Holder of the Certificate

The holder of a plant breeders' right has the exclusive right to:

• sell, and produce the variety in Canada for the purpose of selling, the propagating material of the protected variety;
• make repeated use of the protected variety as a step to commercially produce another variety;
• make repeated use of the protected variety for use in the production of ornamental plants or cut flowers; and
• license a third party to do any of the above acts, conditionally or unconditionally.

Any of these acts undertaken by an unauthorized person constitutes an infringement of the holder's rights.

Restrictions to the Holders' Rights

• Developing new varieties from protected varieties:
  Protected varieties may be used for breeding and developing new plant varieties.
• Farmers' Privilege:
  Farmers may save and use their own seed of protected varieties without infringing on the holder's rights.

Annual Fee

A plant breeders' right will remain in force so long as the holder of the rights pays the annual fee. The fee must be paid annually on the anniversary of the date the rights were granted.

Offences under the Act

• It is an offence for any person when selling a variety to not use the registered denomination for that variety; to use another denomination for the variety, or one that has been registered for another variety or could be confused with a registered denomination; or to falsely claim that the variety is a protected variety.
• It is an offence for any person to make false representation, make a false entry in the register, falsify documents, or produce any false documentation.

A person committing any of these offences is liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to $5 000. A person convicted on indictment for an offence may be fined up to $15 000 and/or jailed for up to three five years. For any of the offences listed, a corporation is liable to a fine of up to $25 000 on summary conviction and to a fine at the discretion of the court on conviction on indictment.

For more details and forms, please visit the Web site or contact the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's Plant Breeders' Rights Office.

DISCLAIMER
Information contained in this section is of a general nature only and is not intended to constitute advice for any specific fact situation. For particular questions, the users are invited to contact their lawyer. For additional information, see contact(s) listed below.

Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon Contact(s):
See National Contact.