Essentially Derived Varieties: Is Australia’s Plant Breeder’s Rights Framework Still Fit For Purpose?

IP Australia is consulting on whether Australia’s framework for essentially derived varieties (EDVs) under the Plant Breeder’s Rights Act 1994 (Cth) (PBR Act) remains fit for purpose. The consultation arises from stakeholder concerns that the way EDVs are defined under the PBR Act is unclear and the threshold for establishing EDVs is too high.

The Current Requirements for EDVs

The PBR Act provides that a plant variety is an EDV of another plant variety if the following three criteria are met:

1. it is predominantly derived from that other plant variety; and
2. it retains the “essential characteristics” that result from the genotype or combination of genotypes of that other variety; and
3. it does not exhibit any “important (as distinct from cosmetic) features” that differentiate it from that other variety.