The CPVO wishes to inform applicants and stakeholders that new CPVO guidelines on variety denominations will become applicable as of 1 January 2022.
A variety denomination is the generic name of a plant variety. In the framework of a CPVR application, the applicant must submit a suitable denomination for his new variety. To be suitable, the variety denomination must comply with the requirements of Article 63 of Regulation No 2100/94 (the Basic Regulation).
In addition, a plant variety denomination is unique and Article 17 of the Basic Regulation makes the use of the variety denomination compulsory in respect of the offering for sale or the marketing of the propagating material of the variety, even after expiration of the CPVR
The CPVO guidelines on the suitability of variety denominations implementing Article 63 of the Basic Regulation were adopted in 2007; they are the basis for the interpretation of the said article and include explanatory notes, which have been developed by the CPVO and were last updated in November 2012.
Since then, the CPVO has faced several situations where the explanatory notes did not provide clear enough guidance and it felt that the current explanatory notes and eventually the guidelines needed to be further developed to address such situations.
An ad-hoc working group on variety denominations, composed of representatives of Member States, the Commission and Breeders’ associations met three times in 2016 and 2017 to revise the explanatory notes with the view to bring more clarity for stakeholders, including the harmonization and predictability of decisions on variety denominations. The CPVO Administrative Council adopted a final version of the Guidelines in March 2018.
The entry into force of the new CPVO Guidelines and their explanatory notes was conditional upon the amendment of the guidelines in Commission Regulation (EC) No 637/2009, implementing Article 63 as well and establishing implementing rules as to the suitability of the denominations of varieties of agricultural plant species and vegetable species subject to the marketing directives.
The revision of the said Regulation was achieved in 2021 and the new Commission Implementing Regulation 2021/384 will enter into force on 01st January 2022, together with the new CPVO Guidelines with explanatory notes available on the CPVO website at: /en/about-us/law-and-practice/legislation-in-force