Jimmie Turner (202) 720-8998jimmie.turner@ams.usda.gov
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2011 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued certificates of protection to developers of 45 new varieties of seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants. They include bean, oat, potato, ryegrass, sorghum, soybean, watermelon and wheat.
The Plant Variety Protection Act provides legal protection in the form of intellectual property rights to developers of new varieties of plants.
“A certificate of protection is awarded to an owner of a crop variety after an examination shows that it is new, distinct from other varieties, and genetically uniform and stable through successive generations,” said Acting Administrator David Shipman, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). “The public benefits as the recipient of lower prices from increased productivity, and from quality food, feed, fiber and other products, that result directly from improved plant varieties.”
The term of protection is 20 years for most crops, and 25 years for trees, shrubs and vines. The owner of a protected variety has exclusive rights to multiply and market the seed of that variety.
The 45 certificates are:
--the Sinaloa variety of field bean, developed by AmeriSeed, LLC, Decatur, Ill.;
--the Hudson, Endeavour and Sony varieties of field bean, developed by Holland-Select Research B.V., ANDIJK, The Netherlands;
--the Luckystrike variety of field bean, developed by Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, Decatur, Ill.;
--the Zorro* and Santa Fe* varieties of field bean, developed by Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.;
--the Sage and Cosmos varieties of field bean, developed by Brotherton Seed Co., Inc., Moses Lake, Wash.;
--the Serengeti variety of field bean, developed by Syngenta Crop Protection Ag., Basel, Switzerland;
--the Viking variety of oat, developed by Lantmannen SW Seed, Svalov, Sweden;
--the Bonus variety of potato, developed by NORIKA Nordring-Kartoffelzucht- und Vermehrungs-GmbH, Lüsewitz, Germany;
--the HOME RUN variety of perennial ryegrass, developed by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ & Mountain View Seeds Ltd., Salem, Ore.;
--the Casper variety of perennial ryegrass, developed by Blue Moon Farms, LLC, Lebanon, Ore.;
--the Sunkissed variety of perennial ryegrass, developed by ProSeeds Marketing, Inc., Jefferson, Ore.;
--the PHAPOZQKE, PHKK4LQKE, PHAXYGXIT, PHO17QMIT, PHA1CQBKE, PHAO8ZVKT, PHBKSCBJIT, PHOKOVVKE, PHOK8MJKT, PHOEWLVIT, PHARSVVIT and PHNOOQFKE varieties of sorghum, developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Plainview, Texas;
--the 95Y31, RJS49002, RJS49003, RJS50002, RJS54001, RJS51001, RJS53002, RJS53001, RJS04002, XB42E10, and XB43S10 varieties of soybean, developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Johnston, Iowa;
--the Polimax variety of watermelon, developed by Nunhems B.V., Haelen, The Netherlands;
--the WB-Matlock, WB-Idamax and WB-Fuzion varieties of common wheat, developed by Monsanto Technology, LLC, St. Louis;
--the Spika* variety of common wheat, developed by Plant Breeders 1 Inc., Moscow, Idaho;
--the Diva variety of common wheat, developed by Washington State University Research Foundation, Pullman, Wash.; and
--the Malbec* variety of common wheat, developed by Syngenta Seeds, Inc., Junction City, Kan.
*In the United States, seed of this variety shall be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed and shall conform to the number of generations specified by the owner of the rights (84 STAT. 1542, as amended, 7 U.S.C. 2321 ET SEQ).
AMS administers the Plant Variety Protection Act, which provides time-limited marketing protection to developers of new and distinct seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants ranging from farm crops to flowers.
For more information, contact the Plant Variety Protection Office at (301) 504-5518, fax (301) 504-5291, or the Internet at www.ams.usda.gov/pvpo.
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