Cultivation of stronger protection for plant breeders

The Government has recently announced proposed changes to New Zealand’s plant variety rights (PVRs) regime to strengthen rights for plant breeders. The reforms are intended to better recognise the investment involved in obtaining PVR registrations and to encourage innovation in the horticulture sector.

Key takeaways

The changes will extend the term of registered protection, making it easier to enforce rights.
A Bill to implement the changes is expected to be introduced this year. Progress on this may depend on the outcome of November’s general election.
We expect that these proposed changes will be welcomed by plant breeders, given the importance of PVRs to New Zealand’s valuable horticulture industry.

The Plant Variety Rights Act 2022 (Act) governs the registration of PVRs in New Zealand, which gives owners the exclusive right to commercially use and control protected plant varieties, including the right to produce, sell, import, and export them.

In May, the Government announced that it intends to make the following changes to the Act:

Extending the term of protection: The duration of registered PVRs will be extended by five years. This would mean protection for up to 30 years for woody and potato varieties, and up to 25 years for other varieties.

Extending the term would give rights holders a longer period to commercialise plant varieties and recover the development costs. This would also align New Zealand more closely with the PVR regimes of the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Restoring provisional protection: Plant breeders will be entitled to enforce rights after filing their PVR application, rather than having to wait until the PVR is granted. This is particularly useful because it can often take five years or more to complete the application process.

This type of provisional protection was in New Zealand’s previous PVR legislation, but was removed under the 2022 Act.
Changes to PVR fees: IPONZ has also said that the PVR fee regime may be brought more into line with patent fee structures, with the aim of maintaining a sustainable and stable system over time.

The details of these proposed fee changes are not yet known, including whether this will reduce official fees for PVRs. We expect to see more detail on this once draft legislation to implement the changes is introduced.

Plant variety rights are a valuable form of intellectual property for New Zealand’s horticultural sector, particularly for the fruit industry. We therefore anticipate that the proposed changes for strengthening rights will be generally welcomed by plant breeders.

The implementation of the reforms could also potentially impact how licences for PVRs are negotiated, such as whether the extended PVR terms impact possible royalty structures.

Further details of the announced changes are on the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand website.

Next steps

The Government has stated that it will introduce a Bill this year to implement the proposed reforms. Detail of proposed reforms remain unclear and will depend on the wording of the Bill. Accordingly, we look forward to seeing how these changes are addressed in the Bill.

With New Zealand’s general election scheduled for 7 November 2026, it also remains to be seen whether any change in government could impact progress of the proposed reforms.