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New Italian Vegetable Varieties Decree.

Decree No.455 of November 03, 1998 updating the Law concerning the Vegetable Varieties.
March 1, 1999

Rome, February 01, 1999

On March 30th, 1999 the Legislative Decree no. 455 of November 3th, 1998 "Provisions to adapt Italian legislation to the revised International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants of 1991" will enter into force in Italy. The Decree abrogates the old vegetable variety Italian patent law and put into conformity the national legislation both with the "Community plant variety rights Regulation" (EC No. 2100/94) and with other UPOV States.

Some of the innovative items are:

1. The right to a new plant variety is named Breeder's right.

2. The variety must satisfy the criteria of a) novelty; b) distinctiveness; c) homogeneity; d) stability.

3. As in the past the novelty criteria is less strict than the one used for invention patents. As a matter of fact the variety shall be deemed to be new if, at the date of filing of the application for a breeder's right, or at the priority date if claimed, propagating or harvested material of the variety has not been sold or otherwise disposed of to third parties, by or with the consent of the breeder, for purposes of exploitation of the variety, in Italy earlier than one year before that date; in a territory other than Italy earlier than four years or, in the case of trees or vines, earlier than six years before that date.

4. The distinctiveness is evaluated in respect to any other well known variety, namely a) a variety object of a plant breeder's right application in anyone of UPOV States, provided that the application leads to the granting of a breeder's right or to the entering in the Official Register of varieties; or b) it is present in public collections; or c) it is described in the literature.

5. A provisional protection in the publication-granting period entitles the breeder to an equitable remuneration from any third party who, during that period, carried out acts which, once the right is granted, would require the breeder's authorization.

6. Further to granting, the breeder's authorization will be required for a) production or reproduction; b) conditioning for the purpose of propagation or multiplication; c) sale, selling, or other marketing; d) exporting or importing; e) stocking for any of the purposes mentioned above.

7. The protected material comprises harvested material, including entire plants and parts thereof, obtained through an unauthorized use of propagating material of the protected variety, unless the breeder has had reasonable opportunity to exercise his right in relation to that propagating material. The burden of proof relies on the alleged unauthorized user.

8. The provisions of items 6 and 7 apply also to essentially derived varieties.

9. The protected material comprises a) propagating or multiplication material of any kind; b) harvested material, including whole plants or parts of plants; c) any product made directly from the harvested material.

10. The breeder's right shall last for twenty years from the granting date; for trees and vines, the period shall be of thirty years from that date. This provision also applies to already granted rights, which are still in force on March 30th, 1999.

11. Annuities will be due only further to granting.

12. Compulsory non-exclusive licences may be granted only for reasons of public interest.

13. A Breeder's right application will be filed for every plant genus and species one year after its entry into force, i.e. March 30th, 2000.

14. Transitory provisions provide that any application filed prior to March 30th, 1999 shall be dealt with according to the provisions contained therein, while the existing provisions shall apply with regard to formal regularity.

News Patents and designs 1999