A rare
decision was recently handed down by the Australian Plant
Breeder's Rights Office, revoking a granted Plant Breeder's
Right (PBR) for a variety of the native Australian grass
Lomandra known as 'Lime Tuff'. The PBR grantee was
Bushland Flora ('Bushland') and the applicant for
revocation was Majestic Selections Pty Ltd ('Majestic').
Majestic successfully made out two grounds for revoking the
PBR.
THE VARIETY WAS NOT DISTINCT
For a plant variety to be registrable it must be
"distinct". A distinct plant variety is one that is
"clearly distinguishable from any other variety whose
existence is a matter of common knowledge".
A variety may become common knowledge for a number of reasons,
including commercialisation of propagating or harvested
material of the variety, the variety being the subject of a PBR
application resulting in the grant of a PBR right, or the public
availability of plant material in a collection.
