What is the criteria for deciding protection of a plant varieties?
There are 5 main criteria to arrive at a decision whether a plant variety is really new or not. These have remained unchanged between 1978 and 1991 Acts of the Convention. These criteria are: 1. Distinctness : The variety shall be deemed to be distinct if it is clearly Discountable from any other variety whose existence is a matter of common knowledge at the time of filing of the application .The object of this criterion is to ensure that the candidate variety can be identified amongst all other varieties whose existence is known, whether or not they are protected. An application for protection or for the entry of a variety in an official register in any country causes the variety to be recorded as a matter of common knowledge. In other words, the application for the protection should be filed with UPOV before disclosing it to any other agency. 2. Uniformity: The variety shall be deemed to be uniform if, subject to the variation that may be accepted from the particular features of its
