Plant variety rights

About plant variety rights

New plant varieties help lift productivity, resilience to pests and climate change, and export value across agriculture and related sectors such as biotechnology and food. Ongoing access to new varieties is therefore important for economic development including growing export returns.

The Plant Variety Rights Act 2022 (PVR Act) is New Zealand’s framework for encouraging plant innovation through breeding, while balancing the interests of breeders, growers, producers and consumers, so there is a net benefit to society. It does this by granting breeders and importers of new plant varieties time‑limited exclusive rights to exploit those varieties (referred to as a PVR), including to sell propagating material like cuttings and seeds. These are recorded on the PVR Register administered by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ). 

To be granted a PVR the plant variety must be:

• new
• distinct
• uniform
• stable

It must also have an acceptable variety name (denomination).

Find out more about applying for and managing a plant variety right on the IPONZ website.(external link)

Why do we need the plant variety rights regime?

The plant variety rights regime encourages the development of new plant varieties, and these will have desirable characteristics for growers and consumers, for example higher yield or higher nutritional value or greater disease resistance.

It provides an opportunity for the plant breeder to recoup some of the investment that they’ve made in the development of that new variety. But it’s important that the market opportunity for the variety owner is appropriately balanced with the needs of growers and consumers.

What rights does the regime grant?

The plant variety rights regime grants the rights holder the exclusive right to sell or produce for sale the seeds or other propagating material of the protected variety.

However, for some plants that are grown from cuttings, for example apples or kiwi fruit, the regime also grants the holder the right to grow the plant for commercial production. The rights are time limited; they last for up to either 20 or 25 years depending on the nature of the variety.

How do breeders recoup their investment?

Breeders recoup their investment usually through growers paying a royalty to the variety owner and this is similar to the royalties paid to musicians and authors for example under the copyright regime.

However, there are certain circumstances in which the permission of the variety owner is not needed and one example of this is when a breeder uses a protected variety in their plant breeding programme.

Changes to the Plant Variety Rights Act 2022

The Government has announced changes to the PVR Act to support innovation, strengthen confidence in the plant breeding sector, and secure sustainable funding for the administration of the Act by IPONZ. These changes are to:

• Extend the maximum PVR duration to 30 years for wood plants, vines and potatoes and 25 years for all other plants for all existing and new registrations to allow breeders and importers more time to recoup investment and fund future breeding programmes. PVR owners will still need to pay annual registration renewal fees to receive the additional registration period.
• Permit a PVR applicant to start legal proceedings during the period after an application, but before the PVR is granted, subject to safeguards to protect innocent growers in the event the PVR is not granted.
• Merge the Patents Act 2013 and PVR Act fee-charging regimes to create a shared funding pool for the administration of both Act by IPONZ. This will make the distribution of administrative costs fairer.
• Make a number of minor and technical amendments to improve the administration of the PVR Act.

Cabinet paper: Amendments to the Plant Variety Rights Act 2022 [PDF, 374 KB]

Cabinet minute: Amendments to the Plant Variety Rights Act 2022 – Minute of Decision [PDF, 245 KB]

Regulatory Impact Statement: Amendments to the Plant Variety Rights Act 2022 [PDF, 455 KB]

Next steps

Work has started on the drafting of a Bill to amend the PVR Act.