Plant Breeder's Rights

Before you Begin

There are a number of PDF forms that you will need to complete and attach to your Plant Breeder's Right application. These are:

You will also need to provide photos of your specimen, evidence of transfer of ownership (if applicable) and further breeding procedure information if this is not included in your Part 1 Form.

Disclaimer:
This interactive guide is intended to provide you with a general understanding of the Plant Breeder's Right Application form within eServices. There are fields within application that do not appear in this guide. Any fees shown in this guide are not necessarily representative of the current fees charged by IP Australia. For specific advice about what steps you should take to best protect your IP you should consider contacting an IP professional.

Getting Started

Please Note: Plant Breeder's Rights Applications are part of a future release of eServices. This service is not currently available within eServices.

Plant Breeder's Right Application fees are payable at the time you submit your application. You can only pay using a Visa or MasterCard.

Your application number will be included on the acknowledgement screen after you have submitted and paid for your application.

The form will contain field specific help to assist you in completing the application.

The status bar lets you know your progess and where you are within the application.

The CANCEL button will let you cancel the application. If you select this your application will not be saved.

The Total Payable area lets you keep track of how much you need to pay. This area is updated based on the services you select.

The NEXT button will take you to the next screen.

The SAVE AS DRAFT button will let you save the application to your local computer at any time.

Applicant or Agent Selection

Your reference

You can use the Your reference field to identify and keep track of the application. You can use any combination of letters, numerals or special characters.

Proposed Variety Name

You must enter your proposed variety name in the Proposed Variety Name field.

Applicants

Add Applicant

You can use the Add another applicant button to add the details of all applicants to the application form.

You will need to enter the name, address and contact details of each applicant.

There is no limit to the number of applicants you can have.

Main Contact

You will need to nominate a main contact for the application. This person/organisation will receive all correspondence regarding the application.

If you are being represented by an agent you can enter your agent's details.

If there are multiple applicants and you are not being represented by an agent, you will need to decide who will be the main contact on behalf of all the applicants.

Breeders

Breeders are the persons or legal entities who bred or discovered and developed the plant variety. This includes persons or legal entities that bred the variety through valid breeding methodologies and / or who discovered the plant and developed the new variety through selective propagation.

Adding breeders who are not applicants

A breeder does not have to be an applicant of the IP right but should be identified in the application.

Only the breeder of the new variety or a person to whom the right to make a PBR application has been assigned, transmitted by will or by operation of law may apply for PBR registration.

If the new variety was bred in the course of performing duties or functions as an employee, the employer is taken to be the person having done the breeding.

There is no limit on the number of breeders you can have.

Attachments

Your forms must be completed before you attach them. You can attach files with PDF (.pdf), TIFF (.tif), JPEG (.jpg), PNG (.png), XML (.xml), Text (.txt), DOC (.doc) and DOCX (.docx) formats. You can attach one file for each field unless indicated otherwise.

Each file cannot exceed a file size of 20MB. The total size of all attachments per field can not exceed 100MB.

Your forms must be completed before you attach them.

You should check your files and their contents before you attach them. If your files are incorrect or you have attached the wrong item your filing date may be affected. You will not be able to preview your attachments through eServices.

For more information on image sizes, resolutions and colourspaces, read our Electronic Business Rules

Mandatory fields are indicated with a '*'. You may need to attach other information such as transfer of ownership and agent authorisation evidence if applicable to the application.

Attachments (continued)

Physical media

If you need to lodge physical media in support of the application you will need to advise us. Lodging physical media may also affect the filing date of the application.

Once you have submitted and paid, eServices will create a cover sheet for your physical media. You can access the cover sheet through the acknowledgement screen. You will attach the printed cover sheet to your physical media before you send it to us.

Additional Requests

At the time you submit your application you can also request and pay for an examination and a certificate.

The examination fee pays for the assessment of the description, the publication of a description and photograph of the new variety in Plant Varieties Journal, the field examination, if any, and any other enquiries necessary to establish eligibility for Plant Breeders Rights.

The Certificate fee covers the final examination of all details, the production of certificate and copy of the variety description in the PBR register.

Summary

When you have entered the information into the form you will be provided with a summary of the application. You can print the summary for your own records if you choose or make changes by selecting the Edit details link.

The summary will show you all the information that you have entered and include the fields that you did not enter any information for.

The summary will show you the file names of all the documents you have attached to your application. You will not be able to preview the attachments.

When you have reviewed the summary screen you will need to click the Proceed to Payment button to pay for the transaction. Once you have paid you will be provided with a screen based official receipt for the transaction. You can print or save the receipt and retain it for your records. You will not be sent a paper receipt in the mail.

eServices - Plant Breeder's Rights Applications