NEW AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW NO.255/1998 GRANTING THE PROTECTION OF THE NEW PLANT VARIETIES

June 02, 2006

In the Official Gazette no.409/11.05.2006 was published the Law no. 119/04.05.2006 which amended the Law no.255/1998 granting the protection of the new plant varieties.

• During the accession process to the European Union, Romania has engaged to implementing the provisions of the communitarian acquis in respect to the protection of the new plant varieties, therefore the amendments and completions of the Law no.255/1998 are mostly referring to the relation between the communitarian and the national protection of the new plant varieties and to the possibility of the Romanian breeders to protect their creation at the Community Office, starting with from the accession moment.
• The Law 119/04.2005 has in particular amended and completed the following aspects: the definition of breeder; the UPOV Convention; the Community Office for the protection of plant varieties; distinctiveness; the right for a new plant variety patent; the deposit of a request for a new plant variety; the testing procedure; the oral procedure in case of litigations; the revocation procedure; the implied taxes; the duration of the protection differentiated by the genera and species; the exceptions from the patent owner rights; the farmer's privilege; the assignment of rights; the cancellation procedure; the mandatory license; the way of appeal; the infringement action; the competences of the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks and of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Rural Development; and finally the registration procedure.
• In the amending process were taken into consideration for implementation the following regulations: Regulation no.1238/95/CE and no.1239/95/CE regarding the examination procedure and the examination taxes for the communitarian protection of the new plant variety; Regulation no.1768/95/CE for the implementation of art.14 align (3) of the Regulation no.2100/94/CE; Regulation no.2605/98/CE regarding the farmer's privilege; Regulation no.2470/96/CE regarding the extension of the protection period for potatoes.

As soon as a certified legal translation of the new law is going to be available we will post it on our web site.