The Council of Ministers approved today, at the request of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (MAPA), a royal decree that modifies the regulations for the protection of plant varieties and the regulations for the registration of commercial varieties.
This modification reinforces the legal certainty of the administrative procedures of both registries. The procedures are carried out under the competence and supervision of the MAPA and include the intervention of different entities that examine the plant varieties to determine the registration of the plant varieties.
Each of the documents generated, regardless of their nature, will be incorporated into the administrative file, facilitating their processing and resolution by the MAPA. In addition, the modification regulates the use of any information protected by the breeder's right for purposes other than registration in the variety register, as it must now be authorized by the ministry.
This modification makes effective MAPA's mandatory competence to custody the reference collections, both the living material, as well as the databases that contain the descriptions and determinations of each variety.
Both regulations are regulated by Royal Decrees 1261/2005, of October 21 (vegetable varieties) and 170/2011, of February 11 (commercial varieties).