The United States protects plants, new plant varieties, and other plant-related innovations through many forms of intellectual property (IP), including plant patents, utility patents, trade secrets, and plant variety protection certificates. Plant breeders can also protect information of value as trade secrets. Additionally, plant names can be protected by registering the name as a trademark. For more information about trademarks and trade secrets, please visit our Trademark and Trade Secret webpages.
Plant patents (35 U.S.C. § 161)
The USPTO grants plant patents to inventors who discover or asexually reproduce a new and distinct plant variety, except for tuber-propagated plants or a plant found in an uncultivated state. The plant patent provides a right to exclude others from asexually reproducing, using, offering for sale, or selling the plant so reproduced, or any parts thereof, throughout the United States. The plant patent also provides the right to exclude others from importing the reproduced plant, or any part thereof, into the United States. Plant patents have a term of 20 years from the filing date of the application.
For more information about plant patents, please visit the USPTO’s Plant Patent webpage.
Utility patents (35 U.S.C. §§ 101 et seq.)
The USPTO grants utility patents for eligible patent-related inventions, including genes, traits, methods, and plant parts. A patent holder is granted a right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in the United States, or importing the invention into the United States. Utility patents have a term of 20 years from the filing date of the application.
For more information about utility patents, please visit the USPTO’s Utility Patent webpage.
Plant Variety Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 2321-2582)
The Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides IP protection in the form of plant variety protection (PVP) certificates to breeders or owners of new varieties of seeds, tubers, and asexually propagated plants. The PVP certificates protect plant varieties for 20 years. The term of protection is 25 years for vines and trees. The USPTO works closely with the PVPO and other U.S. government agencies to lead coordinated IP policy development for the protection of plant varieties. For more information about plant variety protection certificates, please visit the USDA’s Plant Variety Protection webpage.
International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV)
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is an intergovernmental organization formed by the UPOV Convention. UPOV’s headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. UPOV’s mission is to provide and promote an effective system of plant variety protection, with the aim of encouraging the development of new varieties of plants, for the benefit of society. The USPTO leads the U.S. government at UPOV meetings and provides educational programs for UPOV members.
The UPOV Convention was first adopted in Paris on December 2, 1961, and subsequently came into force in 1968. The UPOV Convention has been revised three times (in 1972, 1978, and 1991) to reflect technological developments in plant breeding as well as experience acquired with the application of the UPOV Convention. The UPOV Convention provides the basis for member countries to encourage plant breeding by granting IP rights to breeders of new plant varieties. These rights are known as the breeder’s rights. The breeder’s rights are granted by the individual member of the UPOV Convention.
More information on UPOV is provided on the USPTO's UPOV webpage and the UPOV website.
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
In September 2016, the U.S. Senate ratified the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). The treaty creates an access- and benefit-sharing system for certain crops, allowing members to freely share plant seeds that are subject to the treaty’s standard material transfer agreement (SMTA). The United States deposited its instrument of ratification in December 2016 and became a member of the ITPGRFA in March 2017. Under the ITPGRFA, the USPTO regularly contributes to the formulation of U.S. policy positions on farmers’ rights and IP matters.