A variety shall be deemed to be distinct if it is clearly distinguishable, by reference to the expression of the characteristics resulting from a particular genotype or combination of genotypes, from any other variety whose existence is a matter of common knowledge in the Community.

A variety shall be deemed to be a matter of common knowledge in the Community if, on the date on which application is duly made for its acceptance, it either is entered in the catalogue of the Member State in question or of another Member State or is the subject of an application for acceptance in the Member State in question or in another Member State, unless the conditions referred to in the first sentence of this paragraph are no longer met in all the Member States concerned before a decision is made regarding the application for acceptance of the new variety being assessed.

A variety shall be deemed to be stable if the expression of the characters which are included in the examination for distinctness, as well as any others used for the variety description, remains unchanged after repeated propagation.

A variety shall be deemed to be uniform if, subject to the variation that may be expected from the particular features of its propagation, it is sufficiently uniform in the expression of those characters which are included in the examination for distinctness, as well as any others used for describing the variety.