Guidelines for the protection of rights over plant varieties

According to the new Circular, widely-known plant varieties are whose propagating or harvesting material is widely used in the Vietnamese market or any other country at the time of applying for protection;

Protected or recognized for circulation/special circulation, self-declared for circulation, recognized for trial production, officially recognized in Vietnam or on the list of varieties permitted for trading production in any country;

Subjected to registration applications for the following purposes: Protection of plant varieties; recognition of circulation or special circulation; seed list in any country, if these applications are not rejected.

Plant varieties are considered no longer novelty after 12 months from the date of being allowed to produce and trade in Vietnam. Seeds permitted for production and trading include: Officially recognized varieties; varieties named in the list of plant varieties permitted to be produced and traded in Vietnam; varieties granted a decision on recognition of circulation or special recognition of circulation; Self-proclaimed varieties for circulation are posted on the website of the Department of Crop Production.

Granting or regrant certification for plant variety protection

The Circulation stipulates that the dossiers of granting certification for plant variety protection including a DUS test report according to the form. The order of implementation shall comply with the provisions of Article 20 of Decree No. 88/2010/ND-CP.

It clearly states that the owner has the right to request the re-grant of a plant variety protection certificate in the following cases the certification is lost, torn, damaged, too faded to read, change of owner, or related errors to the name and address of the patent holder.

The dossiers requesting for re-grant of a plant variety protection certificate includes a declaration of request for re-grant of a plant variety protection certificate according to the form; legal documents proving the change of name and address of the owner of the plant variety protection certificate in case of owner changing or errors related to the name and address of the protection certificate holder; the original certification of the plant variety protection (unless it is lost); power of attorney according to the form in case of filing through a representative.

Within 15 working days from the date the dossiers are submitted, the Department of Crop Production shall organize an appraisal of the dossier. If the application is valid, the Department of Crop Production will decide to re-issue the plant variety protection certificate and return the results to the registrant. In case the dossier is not valid, the Department will reply in the text to the registrant and clearly state the reason. In case there is an objection to the re-grant of a plant variety protection certificate by a third party, the handling of such opinions shall comply with the provisions of Article 184 of the Intellectual Property Law.

Re-granted plant variety protection certificates are granted 30 days following the publication of the re-grant decision in the Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development. The re-granted plant variety protection certificate must keep the same number and clearly state the content "re-grant" in the lower-left corner of the protection certificate.

According to Article 188, Law on Intellectual Property 2005, which amended and supplemented in 2009, the acts of infringing upon the rights of the plant variety protection certificate holder including exploiting and using the rights of the protection certificate holder without the permission of the protection certificate holder; using the name of a plant variety that is the same or similar to the name of a protected plant variety for a plant variety of the same species or closely related to the protected plant variety; using a protected plant variety without paying compensation.