The owner must establish and provide a variety name that does not conflict with an existing name for that crop and provide a variety name clearance document with the application. If a variety has been sold, then the name of the variety in the sale must be used.
Here is guidance on establishing a variety name:
- A variety can only have one name.
- The same name cannot be given to more than one variety of the same crop kind or a closely related crop kind.
- Crop kinds of the same species such as pumpkin and squash, field corn and sweet corn, and garden bean and field bean cannot have varieties with the same name.
- Closely related crop kinds that are known to intercross such as wheat and triticale cannot have varieties with the same name.
- A variety name cannot be misleading such as a name that is similar to an existing name but differs only in spelling or punctuation.
- Varieties with names derived from the name of an existing variety must be closely related to the existing variety.
- The same variety name cannot be used for different kinds of cool season turfgrass such as fescue, bluegrass, and ryegrass.
- The same name cannot be assigned to more than one kind or warm season turfgrass such as bermudagrass and zoysia.
- Variety names may contain trademarks, but the trademark status is lost in the sense that anyone marketing seed of that variety must use the entire variety name including the trademark.
- A trademark symbol or registered trademark symbol cannot be displayed in the variety name.
- A trademark by itself cannot be a variety name and a variety name cannot be trademarked.
Applicants must contact the Seed Regulatory and Testing Division (SRTD) to have their variety name checked. SRTD will provide a variety name approval letter, and this must be included with the application. PVPO recommends that applicants check for existing variety names by searching the UPOV PLUTO Variety Database.
If you require assistance with establishing and confirming a variety name, please email the PVPO.