Upcoming public consultations on Plant Variety Rights review

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Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand

Upcoming public consultations on Plant Variety Rights review

MBIE will hold additional public meetings in relation to upcoming consultation on the Plant Variety Rights Act review.

Between July and September 2019, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) consulted on an Options Paper containing several proposed options for reforming the Plant Variety Rights (PVR) regime. Additional feedback was also received via a PVR hui held in Wellington last August 2019.

There are currently a small number of additional matters that require further consideration and consultation. MBIE intends to hold a public consultation on these outstanding policy issues, which relate to:

  • Treaty of Waitangi compliance issues that arose from Cabinet decisions in November 2019. These include the process the Māori Advisory Committee must go through when making a determination on kaitiaki relationships, and whether there could be a first stage review of a determination before judicial review in the courts.
  • Administrative/operational issues relating to the PVR Office. These include the processes around testing/growing trials, confidentiality of information in applications, and access to plant material for comparative purposes.

MBIE will hold a hui in Auckland that is tentatively scheduled for 9 September 2020. The primary focus of the hui will be to discuss the outstanding Treaty-related issues. MBIE is currently seeking expressions of interest that will allow its contacts to finalise the details for this hui.

If you are interested in participating in this hui, please complete and submit the expression of interest form by 17 August 2020.

There will also be an opportunity to discuss the outstanding issues on 20 August 2020, following the PVR Technical Focus Group meeting in Christchurch. The primary focus of this meeting will be to discuss the administrative/operational issues. This meeting is tentatively scheduled to run from 2:00pm to 5:00pm.

If you are interested in participating in this latter discussion, please complete and submit the registration form by 10 August 2020.

For more information about the review, you may visit the following pages:

For further questions, please contact pvractreview@mbie.govt.nz.

Published on August 5, 2020
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