The Philippine Plant Variety Protection Office

The Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) was created through Republic Act 9168, An Act to Provide Protection to New Varieties, Establishing a National PlantVariety Protection Board and for other purposes. This law is otherwise known as the Plant Variety Protection Act of 2002.

The PVP Act of 2002 is the legal basis of a sui generis system of intellectual property rights. The Act provides rights to plant breeders over the propagating material of their protected variety. Specifically, the law states In respect of the propagating materials, holders of a Certificate of Plant Variety Protection shall have the right to authorized any of the following acts:

• Production or reproduction;
• Conditioning for the purpose of propagation;
• Offering for sale;
• Selling or other marketing;
• Exporting;
• Importing; and
• Stocking for any purpose mentioned above.

The PVPO is under the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry, and a Registrar heads the Office. The PVP Office has the following functions:

• Receive and conduct examination of applications for plant variety protection;
• Receive petitions for compulsory license for transmittal to the Board; and
• Maintain a systematic record of all Certificates of Plant Variety Protection, a database of existing plant varieties collected from both local and foreign sources, and samples of the propagating materials of the protected variety.