Plant Variety Rights

In a recent interview with Seed World Europe, Marcel Bruins, the editorial director, sits down with Nuria Urquia Fernandez, Vice President of the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO), to discuss the future of plant breeders' rights and the evolving landscape of intellectual property in agriculture.

Nuria Urquia Fernandez offers her expert perspective on several key issues, including the challenges facing provisional protection and enforcement, particularly in the fruit sector. She also shares her views on how new genomic technologies are reshaping

The SME Fund 2024 offers an unparalleled opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to receive financial support for intellectual property (IP) services, including protecting plant varieties. As the application deadline of December 5, 2024, approaches, we spoke with Sara Piva, International Cooperation Officer at the CPVO (Community Plant Variety Office), to discuss the significance of this fund for plant breeders and how they can make the most of it.

Welcome to a new episode of our series on success stories. 

Today, we are speaking with Dr. Corrado Vigo, a Sicilian agronomist, about the bud mutation that led to the creation of Tarocco Vigo—a discovery born from fortunate coincidences, curiosity, and professionalism.

The discovery of the Tarocco Vigo bud mutation happened by chance while I was walking through citrus groves in Francofonte, in the province of Siracusa—one of the areas where Tarocco

The recent seminar jointly organized by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and  the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO)) in Alicante marked a significant moment for both institutions, as they celebrated three decades of fostering innovation and protecting intellectual property across Europe. The event, attended by a diverse range of stakeholders from legal professionals to plant breeders, provided an invaluable platform for discussing the evolving landscape of intellectual property (IP) and its intersection with critical areas such as sustainability, artificial

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) has been actively involved in the INVITE project, a Horizon 2020-funded initiative aimed at improving plant variety testing across Europe.

Now approaching its conclusion, INVITE has focused on enhancing the efficiency of testing methods for DUS (Distinctness, Uniformity, and Stability) and performance trials. The project's ultimate goal has been to provide better-adapted plant varieties that can thrive under increasingly variable environmental

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) held a technical training meeting on rice, gathering experts from across Europe to discuss advancements in Distinctness, Uniformity, and Stability (DUS) testing. 

The event took place from August 27 to August 28, 2024, at the CREA-DC, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification, located in Vercelli, Italy. This meeting highlighted CPVO's ongoing efforts to refine plant variety protection technical protocols and brought

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) recently played a key role in a high-level study visit focused on Plant Variety Protection (PVP) legislative matters. This visit, co-organized by IPKey EU China, UPOV, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NGFA) of China, is a significant step in strengthening international collaboration on plant variety protection.

The study visit spanned several key European locations, including Brussels, Angers, and Geneva, offering Chinese delegates an in-depth look at the European