If you have already applied for Community Plant Variety Rights and either the application is still pending or the rights have been granted less than two months before the end of the Transition Period, you will need to apply to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) for rights to protect the variety in the UK. This is due to the EU having a two-month appeal period and APHA cannot protect varieties in the UK which might be subject to an appeal.
In either case, if you apply for rights within six months of the end of the Transition Period, you can use the same distinctiveness, uniformity and stability (DUS) test.
The EU will continue to recognise EU plant variety rights granted to all breeders before the end of the Transition Period.
Practice Point: if you currently look after any granted Community Plant Variety Rights make a note to check that they have brought over onto the UK register.
Practice Point: if you currently look after any Community Plant Variety Rights that have only been granted in the last two months before the end of the Transition Period or are still pending at the end of the Transition Period, diarise a six-month deadline from the end of the Transition Period for applying to the UK scheme should protection in the UK be desired. You will be able to use the same distinctiveness, uniformity and stability (DUS) test. If the variety is not distinct from an independently bred variety, priority will be decided using the date of the application for EU rights.
Date published: 3 February 2020
