Washington, DC, USA
September 16, 2016
This newsletter provides updates about the PVPO team, helpful Plant Variety Protection (PVP) tips, and other valuable information that we are certain you will find useful.
In order to obtain PVP, a variety must be new, distinct, uniform, and stable and have a name (denomination). We discussed the concepts of new, distinct, uniform, and stable in the past 2 newsletters. In this issue, we discuss Variety Naming (Denomination) for PVP and provide tips and examples to help select a name that doesn’t conflict with other variety names.
In the U.S., variety names for agricultural (corn, soybean, etc.) and vegetable crops are established from the name that the variety is first sold under, in accordance with the Federal Seed Act. That variety name is permanent once a sale has occurred and cannot be changed or re-used (with few exceptions).
As part of the PVP application process, applicants should request and receive a name clearance confirmation for agricultural and vegetable crops from USDA’s Seed Regulatory and Testing Division. The variety name clearance is a voluntary service for a seed developer to submit a proposed variety name which is checked by USDA for possible conflicts within the U.S (find more information www.ams.usda.gov/services/seed-testing/applying-for-variety). In addition, the Seed Regulatory and Testing Division maintains a list of cleared variety names that can be checked to see if a name conflict exists.
The situation is different for flowers, fruits, and potatoes because they don’t fall under the Federal Seed Act. For these crops, the PVPO works with applicants to make sure their variety names do not conflict with existing names, by checking the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and before issuing a PVP certificate for any crop, the PVPO will do a final check to determine if that variety name has been used before. If variety name conflicts are found, the PVPO informs the UPOV Country, USDA’s Seed Regulatory and Testing Division and the applicants to work out a solution.
Here are some tips to help speed the PVP application review and avoid variety name conflicts:
- A variety can only have one name.
- The same name cannot be given to more than one variety of the same kind or a closely related kind. For example, pumpkin and squash cannot have varieties with the same name. The same would be true between field corn and sweet corn, or garden bean and field bean.
- Closely related kinds that are known to intercross such as wheat and triticale cannot have varieties with the same name.
- A variety name cannot be misleading. Avoid names that are similar to an existing name but differs only in spelling or punctuation.
- Varieties with names derived from the name of an existing variety must be closely related to the existing variety.
- Variety names cannot be reserved for future use.
- The variety name will become permanent once the variety has been sold.
- Variety names should not be the same as existing trademarks (U.S. trademarks can be found at Patent and Trademark Office website = www.uspto.gov).
- Variety names may contain trademarks, but the trademark status is lost in the sense that anyone marketing seed of that variety must use the entire variety name including the trademark. However, the trademark symbol cannot be displayed in the variety name.
- A trademark by itself cannot be a variety name and a variety name cannot be trademarked.
We welcome your suggestions on topics for future newsletters as well as ideas on how we can improve our service. Please feel free to contact the PVPO if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.
The USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
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For more information, please contact:
Plant Variety Protection Office
Science & Technology Program
Agricultural Marketing Service
United States Department of Agriculture
Office: (202) 720-1128
PVPOmail@ams.usda.gov
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