Plant Varieties and Seeds Act 1964

4 The nature of the rights

(1) Subject to this Part of this Act, the holder of plant breeders' rights in a plant variety shall have the exclusive right to do, and to authorise others to do, as follows—

(a) to sell the reproductive material of the plant variety;

(b) to produce the reproductive material of the plant variety in Great Britain for the purpose of selling it; and

(c) in the circumstances described in Schedule 3 to this Act, to exercise the other rights there specified,

and, subject to this section, infringements of plant breeders' rights shall be actionable at the suit of the holder of the rights, and in any proceedings for such an infringement all such relief, by way of damages, injunction, interdict, account or otherwise, shall be available as is available in any corresponding proceedings in respect of infringements of other proprietary rights.

(2) Paragraph (a) of the foregoing subsection shall not apply to the sale of reproductive material which is not in Great Britain when it is sold; but if any person purchases the reproductive material of the plant variety which is not in Great Britain when it is sold and uses it in Great Britain as reproductive material, the purchase and subsequent use shall together constitute an infringement of the plant breeders' rights and the purchaser shall be liable to be proceeded against in respect of the infringement.

References in this subsection to using the reproductive material of a plant variety as reproductive material in Great Britain include references to so disposing of that material (otherwise than by way of sale) while it is in Great Britain as to make it available for use in Great Britain as reproductive material.

(3) There shall be no right to damages in respect of an infringement of plant breeders' rights—

(a) if the person infringing the rights was not aware, and had no reasonable grounds for suspecting, that the plant variety in question was the subject of plant breeders' rights, or

(b) in a case where the infringement consists of a breach of conditions attached to a licence, if that person had no notice of any of those conditions,

but the person who would, but for the foregoing provisions, be entitled to damages shall be entitled to an account of profits in respect of the infringement (and to payment of any amount found due on the account) whether any other relief is granted under this section or not.

(4) The holder of plant breeders' rights may, in authorising other persons to exercise his exclusive rights, impose any conditions, limitations or restrictions which may be imposed by the holder of any other kind of proprietary rights, and plant breeders' rights shall be assignable like other kinds of proprietary rights.

(5) A sale of the reproductive material of a plant variety which is the subject of plant breeders' rights, being a sale by the holder of the rights (or by any other person authorised to grant a licence in respect of those rights)—

(a) shall not imply that the seller authorises the purchaser to produce the reproductive material of the plant variety for the purpose of selling it, but

(b) subject to any terms or conditions imposed by the seller, shall imply that the seller authorises the purchaser to sell the reproductive material sold to him.

(6) In this section and in Schedule 3 to this Act references to selling reproductive material include references to any transaction effected in the course of business—

(a) under which the property in the reproductive material passes from one person to another, or

(b) under which the reproductive material is made over by one person to another in pursuance of a contract under which he will use the reproductive material for growing further reproductive material or other crops,

and paragraph (b) of this subsection shall apply irrespective of whether the contract provides that the property in the crop will be in the person to be regarded as the seller, or the person to be regarded as the purchaser, or a third party; and any reference to purchasing or a purchaser shall be construed accordingly.