COMMUNITY PLANT VARIETY OFFICE (CPVO)

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) is an agency of the European Union, located in Angers, France. It was established in 1994. Its task is to administer a system of plant variety rights, also known as plant breeders’ rights, a form of intellectual property right relating to plants. The CPVO works rather like the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market: it grants intellectual property protection for new plant varieties The right has validity in the European Union in a similar manner that OHIM registers Community Trademarks and the Community Design. Beside the Community Plant Variety Right, some individual EU countries administer its own plant variety right system. However, it is not possible to obtain a Community Plant Variety Right for a plant variety that is subject to a national Plant Variety Right. Plant Variety rights are valid for a period of either 25 or (in the case of varieties of vine and tree species) 30 years.