About IP
Plant Breeders' Right
Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick has considerable experience in assisting plant breeders gain protection for their new plant varieties.
What can be Registered as a Plant Breeders' Right?
Only varieties that are “new” or “recently exploited” can be registered.
- A new variety is one that has not been sold with the breeder’s consent
- A recently exploited variety is one that has been sold with the breeder’s consent, but not more than 12 months previously in Australia, or more than four years ago abroad (six years ago for trees and vines).
The new variety must be distinct from all other similar known varieties, as well as uniform in its characteristics across the variety, and stable through generations.
These attributes – distinctness, uniformity and stability – are referred to as the “DUS” criteria.
