Revised Regulations of China on Protection of New Plant Varieties to Take Effect on 1 June 2025

The third revision of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of New Plant Varieties has recently been adopted and will come into effect on 1 June 2025. Consisting of 49 articles, these Regulations bring the following key changes:

Extended scope of protection: The protection scope of rights in new plant varieties is extended from the propagation materials of authorised varieties to the harvested materials; protected acts performed on propagation materials of authorised varieties are expanded from production, reproduction, and sales to further include processing for reproduction, offering for sale, import, export, and storage; and plant variety rights are extended to cover essentially derived varieties (EDV) of existing authorised varieties, varieties that are not clearly distinguishable from authorised varieties, and varieties produced or reproduced for commercial purposes using authorised varieties.

Establishment of EDV system: These Regulations state that the EDV system will be implemented in stages, and the competent departments will determine the scope of varieties eligible for protection in the form of catalogues, and issue guidelines covering the determination of EDV, detection and testing methods, and other relevant aspects.

Extended protection period: The protection term of variety rights for woody and vine plants is extended from 20 years to 25 years, and for other plants from 15 years to 20 years.

Increased requirements for novelty: These Regulations add two circumstances where novelty will be deemed to be lost: The variety has been confirmed by competent departments to have formed de facto spread based on the sown area; and crop variety that has been approved or registered for more than two years without applying for new plant variety rights.

Stricter requirements on denomination of varieties: These Regulations add restrictive provisions for naming varieties, and state that where the denomination fails to comply with the naming regulations and the name of the authorised variety is not changed despite it is requested to, relevant variety right will be declared invalid.

Shortened preliminary examination period: The preliminary examination period for variety rights is shortened from 6 months to 3 months, and can be extended by 3 months for complicated cases.

Restoration of rights: If a party fails to meet the deadline specified in the Regulations or designated by relevant authorities of the State Council as a result of force majeure or on account of other legitimate reasons and thus loses its variety rights, it may, within a prescribed period, file a request to the competent authorities for restoration of its rights with reasons for the delay furnished.

Strengthened management of overseas variety rights applications: These Regulations state that the departments of agriculture and rural affairs, and forestry and grassland under the State Council, instead of those departments at the provincial level, will be responsible for registration of application for variety rights abroad.