Plant Variety Patenting in Belarus
Patents for plant varieties. How to apply?
A plant variety is a plant grouping within a botanical taxon of the lowest known rank, which can be defined by the degree of expression of the characteristics resulting from a given genotype or combination of genotypes, distinguished from any other plant grouping by the degree of expression of at least one of these characteristics and considered as a unit with regard to its suitability for complete plants of the grouping being propagated unchanged.
A plant variety is granted legal protection if it is new, distinct, uniform and stable.
The right to a plant variety is state protected and certified by a patent for a plant variety. The patent is valid during 25 years from the date of registration of the variety in the National Register of Protected Plant Varieties of the Republic of Belarus. The denomination of the plant variety is registered at the same time. The author is issued a breeder’s certificate.
An application for granting a patent for a plant variety is filed with the National Center of Intellectual Property in compliance with the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Patents for Plant Varieties” from April 13, 1995.
Consideration of an application, conducting of examination of an application with engagement of the National Inspectorate for Testing and Protecting Plant Varieties, delivering of a decision on granting or refusal of a patent, national registration of a plant variety, granting of a patent, publication of information on applications and patents are carried out by the National Center of Intellectual Property.
An application must concern one plant variety and contain:
- a request for granting of a patent for a plant variety;
- a technical questionnaire on the plant variety.
An application is accompanied with the following documents:
- an acknowledgement of payment of the patent fee for filing and conducting of preliminary examination of the application (a payment order or its copy attested by the bank) and/or a document justifying the fee reduction;
- a power of attorney if it is filed with a patent attorney;
- an attested copy of the first application, i.e. the one that has been filed with one of the Member States of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants from December 2, 1961, if the priority is claimed.
A plant variety is given a denomination indicating its botanical taxon. The denomination of the plant variety must be short, enable to identify the plant variety, different from denominations of existing varieties of the same or akin botanical taxon and must not mislead concerning the properties, origins and value of the plant variety or the identity of the author (authors) of the plant variety or the patent holder.
The author (authors) of the plant variety has (have) the right to determine its denomination. The procedure of confirming by the author (authors) of the plant variety of their consent to a denomination of the plant variety in compliance with the requirements of the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Patents for Plant Varieties” is established by the Regulations of the State Committee on Science and Technologies of the Republic of Belarus from July 12, 2014 No. 10.
Legislation of the Republic of Belarus on patents for plant varieties.
