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Plant Variety Protection

Chang Tsi & Partners provides full-cycle legal services for plant variety protection (PVP) for breeding companies, research institutions, and individual breeders across Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, and Taiwan. We have completed qualification registration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA), and are authorised to handle variety rights applications for both agricultural and forestry plants. Drawing on our law firm credentials, we also provide comprehensive support in dispute resolution, litigation, and legal advisory.

Plant variety protection involves a unique intersection of technical and legal disciplines—DUS testing (distinctness, uniformity, stability) is the core component of variety rights examination, the management and submission of propagating material directly impacts the application process, and seed industry compliance (seed production and marketing permits, variety approval and registration, labelling compliance, import/export quarantine) constitutes a critical legal need for seed enterprises. Our team provides professional legal guidance across all of these areas.

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Scope of Services

  • Full-process variety rights application agency: novelty/DUS assessment, document preparation, examination follow-up, and grant publication
  • Filing strategy planning: identify protectable breeding outputs and analyse combined protection for principal varieties and essentially derived varieties
  • DUS testing coordination: assist in preparing propagating material documentation and follow up on testing arrangements
  • Reexamination and office action responses
  • Annuity and renewal management
  • Variety rights database searches, novelty assessments, and similar variety comparisons
  • FTO legal assessments and competitor variety monitoring
  • Variety rights invalidation (filing and defence)
  • Administrative complaints: file complaints with MARA and provincial authorities; assist in curbing infringement through administrative enforcement channels; trade fair and online platform enforcement
  • Civil litigation: variety rights infringement litigation, preliminary injunctions, ownership disputes
  • Administrative litigation: challenge reexamination or invalidation decisions
  • Variety rights licence agreement drafting and negotiation (exclusive/sole/non-exclusive)
  • Variety rights assignment and pledge financing legal services
  • Seed production and marketing permit applications and compliance advisory
  • Variety approval and registration legal support
  • Seed labelling compliance reviews and import/export quarantine approvals
  • Ongoing legal counsel for seed enterprises and IP compliance training

Professional Team

Overview

At the rights acquisition stage, we provide integrated legal services covering the full variety rights application process, DUS testing coordination and follow-up, as well as search and assessment, helping clients establish effective variety rights protection from the breeding R&D stage.

Scope of Services

  • Full-process variety rights application agency: novelty/DUS assessment, document preparation, examination follow-up, and grant publication
  • Filing strategy planning: identify protectable breeding outputs and analyse combined protection strategies for principal varieties and essentially derived varieties
  • DUS testing coordination: assist in preparing propagating material documentation, follow up on testing arrangements, and assess whether to raise procedural objections
  • Reexamination and office action responses: analyse examination opinions, draft amendment documents, and submit written opinions on trait characterisation
  • Annuity and renewal management: establish payment calendars, expiry alerts, and periodic assessment and maintenance recommendations
  • Variety rights database searches, novelty assessments, and similar variety comparisons
  • FTO legal assessments, competitor variety monitoring, and variety rights validity assessments

 

Professional Team

Overview

With both variety rights agency registration and law firm credentials, we provide seamless legal support in PVP dispute resolution—from administrative rights proceedings through judicial remedies—covering invalidation, administrative complaints, civil litigation, and administrative litigation.

Scope of Services

  • Variety rights invalidation: file or defend invalidations on statutory grounds such as loss of novelty or DUS deficiency
  • Administrative complaints: file complaints with MARA and provincial authorities; assist in curbing infringement through administrative enforcement channels; trade fair and online platform enforcement
  • Civil litigation: variety rights infringement litigation, preliminary injunctions, ownership disputes, mediation and settlement
  • Administrative litigation: challenge reexamination or invalidation decisions before the competent court 
  • Variety rights ownership mediation and arbitration, breeding output attribution disputes, and administrative reconsideration

 

Professional Team

Overview

We assist clients in commercialising variety rights and provide full-chain seed industry compliance advisory covering seed production and marketing permits, variety approval and registration, import/export quarantine, and other regulatory matters. Seed industry compliance is a critical legal need for seed enterprises, and our team provides professional support across these areas.

Scope of Services

  • Draft, review, and negotiate variety rights licence agreements (exclusive/sole/non-exclusive)
  • Variety rights assignment and pledge financing legal services
  • Draft R&D collaboration and joint breeding agreements
  • Resolve ownership or benefit-sharing disputes arising from breeding collaborations
  • Seed production and marketing permit applications and compliance advisory
  • Variety approval and registration legal support
  • Seed labelling and usage instruction compliance reviews
  • Seed import/export quarantine approvals and compliance advisory
  • Agricultural administrative enforcement response
  • Ongoing legal counsel for seed enterprises
  • IP compliance training for breeding research institutions
  • PVP policy interpretation and legal risk alerts

 

Professional Team