PLANT VARIETIES
10 TIPS FOR PROTECTING YOUR
PLANT VARIETIES IN TURKEY While plant varieties are afforded strong protection in Turkey, it is important to tick all the right boxes. Ersin Dereligil and Yesim Metin give 10 key tips for rights holders.
T e intellectual property rights of plant breeders have been protected in Turkey since 2004. Plant breeders’ rights (PBR) thus grant exclusive rights to the breeder of a new variety of plant over the propagating material including seeds, cuttings, divisions, tissue culture and harvested material such as cut fl owers, fruits, or foliage of a new variety. In that sense, these varieties are required to be recognisably diff erent from any other varieties and remain unchanged through the process of propagation.
Turkey has received nearly 700 PBR applications in the last nine years with a striking increase rate of 60 percent in the last two years (see table).
In these fi ling numbers, foreign right owners, especially from Holland, France and Spain, represent 58 percent of this total, which apparently indicates that they take full advantage of this valuable IP asset in competition through this emerging market in an important geographical location. T e most popular varieties of PBR applications are fi eld crops (46 percent), fruits (29 percent), vegetables (14 percent) and ornamentals (11 percent), respectively.
Overview
Plant varieties have been protected by the Turkish PBR Law No: 5042 since January 15, 2004. T e implementing regulations as for PBR protection and basics on farmer exceptions for the law were published on August 12, 2004. Turkey became the 65th member of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV Convention) in November 2007, so the legislation is in full compliance with the convention.
Turkey requires a variety to be novel, distinct, uniform and stable (DUS) and to have a suitable denomination as guided in UPOV Convention.
T e General Directorate of Crop Production and Development (BUGEM) is responsible for PBR registrations as the authorised offi ce in Turkey whereas the Variety Registration & Seed
Certifi cation Centre (TTSM) holds technical examination tasks including DUS tests; both authorities are operated under the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock.
T e period of PBR protection for ornamentals, vegetables and fi eld crops is 25 years from the grant of the right (not fi ling date). T is period is 30 years for trees, vines, and potatoes. T e end date of protection period shall be calculated to run from the end of the calendar year. Annual fees will be paid in advance in January for each year aſt er the grant of the right. No late payment is available.
Ten tips for protecting plant varieties
1. Which variety?
Turkey does not allow protection for all plant varieties at present and the plant genera and species to be protected should be included in the national list of plant varieties allowed for Turkey (265 at present), the names of which are regularly updated at
www.ttsm.gov.tr/EN/belge/2-59/granted-species.html
Since the Turkish PBR offi ce is responsive to right holders’ requests to new additions to the list, to avoid any right loss it is important to ask for a missing species to be allowed and added into the list via a written request well in advance of fi ling an application.
2. When to fi le an application
T ere is no deadline for fi ling an application as long as the variety has never been made public or off ered for commercial use. However, a variety shall be deemed to be still novel where it has not been commercialised or fi led abroad more than four years earlier or, in the case of trees or of vines, earlier than six years for foreign breeders. If a variety has been commercialised in Turkey, the novelty term is just one year. T e priority term is one year aſt er fi ling the fi rst PBR application if an applicant would like to enjoy a priority right.
104 World Intellectual Property Review September/October 2013 3. Procedural stages of PBR prosecution
All PBR applications are to be formally examined on the availability of fi ling requirements and entitlement. A non-extensible one-month period is allowed for the applicant to overcome defi ciencies in the application. T en, the application is subjected to a substantive examination as to (1) novelty, (2) applicant rights and (3) variety denomination. If an application fulfi ls the above mentioned requirements, the application number and date are published for three months allowing for the opposition of third parties.
In case of any opposition, BUGEM issues an offi cial letter and invites the applicant to fi le a response within three months. Aſt erwards, TTSM starts a technical examination stage with trials, for one or more growth seasons at particular locations in Turkey, which may takes two or three years depending on the variety. If granted for protection, a certifi cate is issued and published accordingly for oppositions to be raised within 30 days.
4. Take advantage of your existing DUS tests T e prosecution and length of
the granting
period are strictly dependent upon the technical examination (DUS tests confi rm whether the variety belongs to
declared botanical
classifi cation, to determine whether the variety has diff erent characteristics of distinctness, uniformity and stability). If it already been conducted and a report completed in another acceptable foreign PBR authority, ie, the Community Plant Variety Offi ce (CPVO) or a PBR offi ce in a member state of UPOV Convention, the applicants may avoid the technical examination stage provided that the test reports are submitted to BUGEM during fi ling. TTSM is asked fi rst to summon them directly from the priority offi ce once the applicant pays the required offi cial fee. Otherwise, the examination will be conducted all over again.
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