Ownership and use of plant material and DNA profiles supplied to the PVR Office (2022 Act)

Key principles

The Plant Variety Rights (PVR) Office provides effective communication with variety owners with respect to the use of plant material and DNA profiles.

The PVR Office acknowledges that plant material should only be made available to any party, in such a way that the legitimate interests of the variety owner would be safeguarded.

The PVR Office is the custodian of submitted plant material and DNA profiles, whether these are provided voluntarily or as part of a requirement.

The PVR Office’s usage of plant material and DNA profiles is for the testing of distinctness, uniformity, and stability (DUS); and other official purposes only. Any plant material usage outside the scope of testing requires the consent of the variety owner.

Plant material

The breeder or successor-in-title is the owner of any plant material submitted to the PVR Office for official purposes. This includes material supplied to a PVR Variety Collection as part of the testing process. The PVR Office acts as the custodian of all plant material, irrespective of the physical location of the Variety Collection or the growing trial.

Plant material of a provisionally protected or a protected variety may be supplied to a growing trial site for testing purposes. This is done at the request of the trial site coordinator, on behalf of the PVR Office. In these situations, the status of the plant material is the same as if it were supplied to a PVR Variety Collection.

Some plant material which has been supplied to a DUS growing trial or Variety Collection may be surplus to requirements. If this material is no longer needed or not required for any official purpose, it can be disposed of with the consent of the breeder. This also applies to any harvested products from the variety collection or growing trial.

The use of submitted plant material for any purpose other than for DUS testing or other official purpose requires the consent of the variety owner. The PVR Office will notify a variety owner if plant material is supplied to another national authority that is carrying out DUS testing.

In cases where an application is refused or withdrawn, the plant material of that variety will be destroyed, or may be retained in the Variety Collection following consultation with the owner.

Plant material samples supplied from a Variety Collection for infringement cases can be made available to any party with the consent of the variety owner.

The PVR Office will hold plant material in the Variety Collection for surrendered, cancelled and expired varieties. In the event that plant material for a variety in the Collection needs to be renewed, and new material is no longer maintained or not readily available, then the PVR Office may no longer consider the variety to be of Common Knowledge.

DNA profiles

The variety owner or breeder is the owner of any DNA profile held by the PVR Office. The submission of a profile which is held on a variety file is entirely at the variety owner’s discretion and is done with the full knowledge that the profile could be made available to other parties under Section 8 of the Plant Variety Rights Act 1987, Sections 138 and 155 of the Plant Variety Rights Act 2022 or the Official Information Act 1982.

Section 138 of the Plant Variety Rights Act 2022  — New Zealand Legislation

Section 155 of the Plant Variety Rights Act 2022  — New Zealand Legislation

Section 8 of the Plant Variety Rights Act 1987  — New Zealand Legislation

Official Information Act 1982  — New Zealand Legislation

The PVR Office is free to use a DNA profile submitted by an owner for DUS testing or other official purposes, such as identity checking and the management of variety collections.

Descriptions and photographs from plant material used for DUS Testing

Public access to documents and photographs originating from submitted plant material is consistent with the release of Official Information under the Official Information Act 1982.

In the course of all testing, a variety description is drafted. For many varieties, this description is supported by photographs. The description and photos are entered into the IPONZ case management system and become accessible to the public if a Grant is issued.

The case management system may also hold additional variety description records or data which is not included in the formal variety description itself. This information may be available on request.