How do I know that my variety denomination is suitable?

A variety denomination is suitable, if there is no impediment pursuant to paragraphs 3 or 4 of Article 63 of the Basic Regulation.

A variety denomination should allow identifying your variety. It must be recognizable and reproducible.

A variety denomination should not be precluded by a prior right; it should not give offense or be contrary to public policy. The variety denomination should not be identical or similar to another variety denomination of the same or closely related species and it should not mislead or create confusion as to the characteristics, value or identity of the variety or the identity of the breeder or any party to proceedings. The variety denomination should also not refer to designations that should be kept free under other legislations.

In respect to similarity, please note that the CPVO Variety Finder database offers upon free registration a service to test the similarity of your variety denomination against existing denominations of the same or of a closely related species. For other aspects, please refer to the Guidelines on variety denominations, available on the CPVO website.

In the case of an application for Community Plant Variety Right, the proposed denomination is systematically checked and analysed by the Office before publication. If the proposed denomination is not suitable, the Office will send an observation to the applicant with the request to comment on the findings or to submit a new denomination proposal within one month from the date of our letter. The comments of the applicant will be presented to and discussed by the Committee responsible for the suitability of variety denominations and the outcome (suitable or unsuitable) will be notified to the applicant by letter. The applicant has two months to either propose a new variety denomination, or to comment again.

Please note that the decision to grant a Community Plant variety right and to approve a denomination are taken at the same moment. The lack of a suitable denomination at that time can lead to the rejection of the whole application.

In order to minimize mistakes, please make sure always to inform all authorities with whom plant variety rights have been applied for of any change in the variety denomination of the same variety (one variety, one denomination rule).