Washington, DC, USA
July 14, 2011

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued certificates of protection to developers of 40 new varieties of seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants. They include bean, chickpea, corn, potato, ryegrass and soybean.

The Plant Variety Protection Act provides legal protection in the form of intellectual property rights to developers of new varieties of plants.

“A certificate of protection is awarded to an owner of a crop variety after an examination shows that it is new, distinct from other varieties, and genetically uniform and stable through successive generations,” said Administrator Rayne Pegg, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). “The public benefits from lower prices due to increased productivity, and from quality food, feed, fiber and other products, that result directly from improved plant varieties.”

The term of protection is 20 years for most crops, and 25 years for trees, shrubs and vines. The owner of a protected variety has exclusive rights to multiply and market the seed of that variety.

The 40 certificates are:

• the SVS 0815 variety of field bean, developed by Seminis Vegetable Seeds, Inc., Oxnard, Calif.;
• the Sierra variety of chickpea, *developed by U.S. Government, as represented by the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.;
• the PHE3D variety of field corn, developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Johnston, Iowa;
• the Red Fantasy variety of potato, developed by EUROPLANT Pflanzenucht GmbH, Lüneburg, Germany;
• the Dazzle variety of perennial ryegrass, developed by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and Blue Moon Farms, LLC, Lebanon, Ore.; and
• the XB35R10, XB34Z10, XB36J10, XR15T10, XR31U10, XR35210, XR57M10, RJS09004, RJS11002, RJS17001, RJS30006, RJS00901, RJS01001, RJS38003, RJS38005, RJS38006, RJS39006, RJS39007, RJS40005, RJS40007, RJS40008, RJS42001, RJS42002, RJS43003, RJS45002, RJS46002, RJS47002, RJS47004, RJS47006, RJS48002, RJS48005, RJS48006, RJS49006, RJS54003 and RJS56002 varieties of soybean, developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Johnston, Iowa.

*In the United States, seed of this variety shall be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed, and shall conform to the number of generations specified by the owner of the rights (84 STAT. 1542, as amended, 7 U.S.C. 2321 ET SEQ).

AMS administers the Plant Variety Protection Act, which provides time-limited marketing protection to developers of new and distinct seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants ranging from farm crops to flowers.

Website: http://www.ams.usda.gov/pvpo

Published: July 15, 2011