Plant Varieties Protection Bill

Bill No. 21/2004

Read the first time on 19th May 2004.

An Act to provide for the protection of plant varieties.

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title and commencement

1. This Act may be cited as the Plant Varieties Protection Act 2004 and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

Interpretation

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“applicant”, in relation to any application, means the person by whom or on whose behalf the application is made;

“application” means an application for a grant of protection;

“breeder”, in relation to any plant variety, means —

(a)	subject to paragraph (b), a person who bred, or discovered and developed, the plant variety;
(b)	if the plant variety was bred, or discovered and developed, by a person in the course of performing his duties or functions as an employee of another person, that other person; or
(c)	the successor in title to the person in paragraph (a) or (b), as the case may be;

“Convention” means the international agreement called the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants of 2nd December 1961, as revised or amended from time to time;

“Court” means the High Court;

“denomination” means the distinguishing name or identification for a plant variety;

“grant of protection” means a grant of protection made by the Registrar under section 21;

“grantee” means the holder of a grant of protection;

“harvested material” means any harvested material to which the rights of a grantee under section 28(1) are extended by virtue of section 28(7);

“plant” includes all fungi and algae but does not include bacteria, bacteroids, mycoplasmas, viruses, viroids and bacteriophages;

“plant variety” means a plant grouping within a single botanical taxon of the lowest rank which, irrespective of whether the conditions for a grant of protection are fully met, can be —

(a)	defined by the expression of the characteristics resulting from a given genotype or a combination of genotypes;
(b)	distinguished from any other plant grouping by the expression of at least one of those characteristics; and
(c)	considered as a unit with regard to its suitability for being propagated unchanged;

“prescribed examination authority” means such plant variety examination authority in Singapore or any other UPOV member as the Minister may from time to time prescribe;

“procedural representative”, in relation to any plant variety, means a person who is resident or has an office in Singapore and who is appointed by the breeder of that variety to act on his behalf in respect of the making of any application for, or any proceedings relating to, a grant of protection for that variety;

“propagating material”, in relation to a plant of a particular plant variety, means any part or product from which, whether alone or in combination with other parts or products of that plant, another plant with the same essential characteristics can be produced;

“propagation”, in relation to a plant or any of its components, means the growth, culture or multiplication of that plant or component;

“protected variety” means a plant variety in respect of which a grant of protection is in force, and includes any essentially derived or other plant variety to which the grant of protection is extended by virtue of section 29(1);

“register” means the register of plant varieties maintained under section 39;

“Registrar” means the Registrar of Plant Varieties referred to in section 5;

“Registry” means the Registry of Plant Varieties referred to in section 7;

“relevant characteristics”, in relation to any plant variety, means the phenotypical and genotypical expressions of the variety that permit its identification;

“term”, in relation to a grant of protection, means the term of the grant of protection under section 24;

“UPOV member” means a state or an intergovernmental party to the Convention which is a member of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants constituted pursuant to the Convention.

Act to bind Government

3. This Act shall bind the Government but nothing in this Act shall render the Government liable to be prosecuted for an offence.

Application of Act to certain plants

4.—(1) This Act only applies to the plant genera and species listed in the Schedule.

(2) The Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, amend the Schedule.

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