Plant Varieties Act 1997

38 Interpretation of Part I

(1) In this Part of this Act—

• “the Council Regulation” means Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 of 27th July 1994 on Community plant variety rights, and references to particular provisions of the Council Regulation shall be construed as references to those provisions, or provisions of any Community instrument replacing them, as amended from time to time;

• “gazette” means the gazette published under section 34 of the [1964 c. 14.] Plant Varieties and Seeds Act 1964;

• “name” includes any designation;

• “protected variety”, in relation to any plant breeders' rights, means the variety which was the basis of the application for the grant of the rights;

• “variety” has the meaning given by section 1(3) above.

(2) In this Part of this Act references to an applicant for the grant of plant breeders' rights, or to the holder of plant breeders' rights, include, where the context allows, references to his predecessors in title or his successors in title.

(3) For the purposes of this Part of this Act, the existence of a variety shall be taken to be a matter of common knowledge if—

(a) it is, or has been, the subject of a plant variety right under any jurisdiction,

(b) it is, or has been, entered in an official register of plant varieties under any jurisdiction, or

(c) it is the subject of an application which subsequently leads to its falling within paragraph (a) or (b) above.

(4) Otherwise, common knowledge may be established for those purposes by reference, for example, to—

(a) plant varieties already in cultivation or exploited for commercial purposes,

(b) plant varieties included in a recognised commercial or botanical reference collection, or

(c) plant varieties of which there are precise descriptions in any publication.