TITLE 7 - US CODE - SUBCHAPTER III - PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION AND RIGHTS

Part J - Ownership and Assignment

7 USC 2531 - Ownership and assignment

(a) Subject to the provisions of this subchapter, plant variety protection shall have the attributes of personal property.

(b) Applications for certificates of plant variety protection, or any interest in a variety, shall be assignable by an instrument in writing. The owner may in like manner license or grant and convey an exclusive right to use of the variety in the whole or any specified part of the United States.

(c) A certificate of acknowledgment under the hand and official seal of a person authorized to administer oaths within the United States, or in a foreign country, of a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States or an officer authorized to administer oaths whose authority is proved by a certificate of a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States, shall be prima facie evidence of the execution of an assignment, grant, license, or conveyance of plant variety protection or application for plant variety protection.

(d) An assignment, grant, conveyance or license shall be void as against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee for a valuable consideration, without notice, unless it, or an acknowledgment thereof by the person giving such encumbrance that there is such encumbrance, is filed for recording in the Plant Variety Protection Office within one month from its date or at least one month prior to the date of such subsequent purchase or mortgage.

7 USC 2532 - Ownership during testing

An owner who, with notice that release is for testing only, releases possession of seed or other sexually reproducible or tuber propagable plant material for testing retains ownership with respect thereto; and any diversion from authorized testing, or any unauthorized retention, of such material by anyone who has knowledge that it is under such notice, or who is chargeable with notice, is prohibited, and violates the property rights of the owner. Anyone receiving the material tagged or labeled with the notice is chargeable with the notice. The owner is entitled to remedy and redress in a civil action hereunder. No remedy available by State or local law is hereby excluded. No such notice shall be used, or if used be effective, when the owner has made identical sexually reproducible or tuber propagable plant material available to the public, as by sale thereof.

Part K - Infringement of Plant Variety Protection

7 USC 2541 - Infringement of plant variety protection

(a) Acts constituting infringement
Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, it shall be an infringement of the rights of the owner of a protected variety to perform without authority, any of the following acts in the United States, or in commerce which can be regulated by Congress or affecting such commerce, prior to expiration of the right to plant variety protection but after either the issue of the certificate or the distribution of a protected plant variety with the notice under section 2567 of this title:

(1) sell or market the protected variety, or offer it or expose it for sale, deliver it, ship it, consign it, exchange it, or solicit an offer to buy it, or any other transfer of title or possession of it;

(2) import the variety into, or export it from, the United States;

(3) sexually multiply, or propagate by a tuber or a part of a tuber, the variety as a step in marketing (for growing purposes) the variety;

(4) use the variety in producing (as distinguished from developing) a hybrid or different variety therefrom;

(5) use seed which had been marked Unauthorized Propagation Prohibited or Unauthorized Seed Multiplication Prohibited or progeny thereof to propagate the variety;

(6) dispense the variety to another, in a form which can be propagated, without notice as to being a protected variety under which it was received;

(7) condition the variety for the purpose of propagation, except to the extent that the conditioning is related to the activities permitted under section 2543 of this title;

(8) stock the variety for any of the purposes referred to in paragraphs (1) through (7);

(9) perform any of the foregoing acts even in instances in which the variety is multiplied other than sexually, except in pursuance of a valid United States plant patent; or

(10) instigate or actively induce performance of any of the foregoing acts.

(b) Uses authorized by owner

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), the owner of a protected variety may authorize the use of the variety under this section subject to conditions and limitations specified by the owner.

(2) In the case of a contract between a seed producer and the owner of a protected variety of lawn, turf, or forage grass seed, or alfalfa or clover seed for the production of seed of the protected variety, the producer shall be deemed to be authorized by the owner to sell such seed and to use the variety if

(A) the producer has fulfilled the terms of the contract;

(B) the owner refuses to take delivery of the seed or refuses to pay any amounts due under the contract within 30 days of the payment date specified in the contract; and

(C) after the expiration of the period specified in subparagraph (B), the producer notifies the owner of the producers intent to sell the seed and unless the owner fails to pay the amounts due under the contract and take delivery of the seed within 30 days of such notification. For the purposes of this paragraph, the term owner shall include any licensee of the owner.

(3) Paragraph (2) shall apply to contracts entered into with respect to plant varieties protected under this chapter as in effect on the day before the effective date of this provision as well as plant varieties protected under this chapter as amended by the Plant Variety Protection Act Amendments of 1994.

(4) Nothing in this subsection shall affect any other rights or remedies of producers or owners that may exist under other Federal or State laws.

(1) any variety that is essentially derived from a protected variety, unless the protected variety is an essentially derived variety;

(2) any variety that is not clearly distinguishable from a protected variety;

(3) any variety whose production requires the repeated use of a protected variety; and

(4) harvested material (including entire plants and parts of plants) obtained through the unauthorized use of propagating material of a protected variety, unless the owner of the variety has had a reasonable opportunity to exercise the rights provided under this chapter with respect to the propagating material.

(d) Acts not considered infringing
It shall not be an infringement of the rights of the owner of a variety to perform any act concerning propagating material of any kind, or harvested material, including entire plants and parts of plants, of a protected variety that is sold or otherwise marketed with the consent of the owner in the United States, unless the act involves further propagation of the variety or involves an export of material of the variety, that enables the propagation of the variety, into a country that does not protect varieties of the plant genus or species to which the variety belongs, unless the exported material is for final consumption purposes.

(e) Private noncommercial uses
It shall not be an infringement of the rights of the owner of a variety to perform any act done privately and for noncommercial purposes.

(f) “Perform without authority” defined
As used in this section, the term perform without authority includes performance without authority by any State, any instrumentality of a State, and any officer or employee of a State or instrumentality of a State acting in the official capacity of the officer or employee. Any State, and any such instrumentality, officer, or employee, shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter in the same manner and to the same extent as any nongovernmental entity.

7 USC 2542 - Grandfather clause

Nothing in this chapter shall abridge the right of any person, or the successor in interest of the person, to reproduce or sell a variety developed and produced by such person more than one year prior to the effective filing date of an adverse application for a certificate of plant variety protection.

7 USC 2543 - Right to save seed; crop exemption

Except to the extent that such action may constitute an infringement under subsections (3) and (4) of section 2541^[1] of this title, it shall not infringe any right hereunder for a person to save seed produced by the person from seed obtained, or descended from seed obtained, by authority of the owner of the variety for seeding purposes and use such saved seed in the production of a crop for use on the farm of the person, or for sale as provided in this section. A bona fide sale for other than reproductive purposes, made in channels usual for such other purposes, of seed produced on a farm either from seed obtained by authority of the owner for seeding purposes or from seed produced by descent on such farm from seed obtained by authority of the owner for seeding purposes shall not constitute an infringement. A purchaser who diverts seed from such channels to seeding purposes shall be deemed to have notice under section 2567 of this title that the actions of the purchaser constitute an infringement.

[1] See References in Text note below.

7 USC 2544 - Research exemption

The use and reproduction of a protected variety for plant breeding or other bona fide research shall not constitute an infringement of the protection provided under this chapter.

7 USC 2545 - Intermediary exemption

Transportation or delivery by a carrier in the ordinary course of its business as a carrier, or advertising by a person in the advertising business in the ordinary course of that business, shall not constitute an infringement of the protection provided under this chapter.

Part L - Remedies for Infringement of Plant Variety Protection, and Other Actions

7 USC 2561 - Remedy for infringement of plant variety protection

An owner shall have remedy by civil action for infringement of plant variety protection under section 2541 of this title. If a variety is sold under the name of a variety shown in a certificate, there is a prima facie presumption that it is the same variety.

7 USC 2562 - Presumption of validity; defenses

(a) Certificates of plant variety protection shall be presumed valid. The burden of establishing invalidity of a plant variety protection shall rest on the party asserting invalidity.

(b) The following shall be defenses in any action charging infringement and shall be pleaded:

(1) noninfringement, absence of liability for infringement, or unenforceability;

(2) invalidity of the plant variety protection in suit on any ground specified in section 2402 of this title as a condition for protectability;

(3) invalidity of the plant variety protection in suit for failure to comply with any requirement of section 2422 of this title;

(4) that the asserted infringement was performed under an existing certificate adverse to that asserted and prior to notice of the infringement; and

(5) any other fact or act made a defense by this chapter.

7 USC 2563 - Injunction

The several courts having jurisdiction of cases under this subchapter may grant injunctions in accordance with the principles of equity to prevent the violation of any right hereunder on such terms as the court deems reasonable.

7 USC 2564 - Damages

(a) Upon finding an infringement the court shall award damages adequate to compensate for the infringement but in no event less than a reasonable royalty for the use made of the variety by the infringer, together with interest and costs as fixed by the court.

(b) When the damages are not determined by the jury, the court shall determine them. In either event the court may increase the damages up to three times the amount determined.

(c) The court may receive expert testimony as an aid to the determination of damages or of what royalty would be reasonable under the circumstances.

(d) As to infringement prior to, or resulting from a planting prior to, issuance of a certificate for the infringed variety, a court finding the infringer to have established innocent intentions, shall have discretion as to awarding damages.

7 USC 2565 - Attorney fees

The court in exceptional cases may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party.

7 USC 2566 - Time limitation on damages

(a) No recovery shall be had for that part of any infringement committed more than six years (or known to the owner more than one year) prior to the filing of the complaint or counterclaim for infringement in the action.

(b) In the case of claims against the United States Government for unauthorized use of a protected variety, the period between the date of receipt of written claim for compensation by the department or agency of the Government having authority to settle such claim, and the date of mailing by the Government of a notice to the claimant that the claim has been denied shall not be counted as part of the period referred to in the preceding paragraph.

7 USC 2567 - Limitation of damages; marking and notice

Owners may give notice to the public by physically associating with or affixing to the container of seed of a variety or by fixing to the variety, a label containing either the words Unauthorized Propagation Prohibited or the words Unauthorized Seed Multiplication Prohibited and after the certificate issues, such additional words as U.S. Protected Variety. In the event the variety is distributed by authorization of the owner and is received by the infringer without such marking, no damages shall be recovered against such infringer by the owner in any action for infringement, unless the infringer has actual notice of knowledge that propagation is prohibited or that the variety is a protected variety, in which event damages may be recovered only for infringement occurring after such notice. As to both damages and injunction, a court shall have discretion to be lenient as to disposal of materials acquired in good faith by acts prior to such notice.

7 USC 2568 - False marking; cease and desist orders

(a) Each of the following acts, if performed in connection with the sale, offering for sale, or advertising of sexually reproducible plant material or tubers or parts of tubers, is prohibited, and the Secretary may, if the Secretary determines after an opportunity for hearing that the act is being so performed, issue an order to cease and desist, said order being binding unless appealed under section 2461 of this title:

(1) Use of the words U.S. Protected Variety or any word or number importing that the material is a variety protected under certificate, when it is not.

(2) Use of any wording importing that the material is a variety for which an application for plant variety protection is pending, when it is not.

(3) Use of either the phrase Unauthorized Propagation Prohibited or Unauthorized Seed Multiplication Prohibited or similar phrase without reasonable basis. Any reasonable basis expires one year after the first sale of the variety except as justified thereafter by a pending application or a certificate still in force.

(4) Failure to use the name of a variety for which a certificate of protection has been issued under this chapter, even after the expiration of the certificate, except that lawn, turf, or forage grass seed, or alfalfa or clover seed may be sold without a variety name unless use of the name of a variety for which a certificate of protection has been issued under this chapter is required under State law.

(b) Anyone convicted of violating a binding cease and desist order, or of performing any act prohibited in subsection (a) of this section for the purpose of deceiving the public, shall be fined not more than $10,000 and not less than $500.

(c) Anyone whose business is damaged or is likely to be damaged by an act prohibited in subsection (a) of this section, or is subjected to competition in connection with which such act is performed, may have remedy by civil action.

7 USC 2569 - Nonresident proprietors; service and notice

Every owner not residing in the United States may file in the Plant Variety Protection Office a written designation stating the name and address of a person residing within the United States on whom may be served process or notice of proceedings affecting the plant variety protection or rights thereunder. If the person designated cannot be found at the address given in the last designation, or if no person has been designated, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia shall have jurisdiction and summons shall be served by publication or otherwise as the court directs. The court shall have the same jurisdiction to take any action respecting the plant variety protection, or rights thereunder that it would have if the owner were personally within the jurisdiction of the court.

7 USC 2570 - Liability of States, instrumentalities of States, and State officials for infringement of plant variety protection

(a) Any State, any instrumentality of a State, and any officer or employee of a State or instrumentality of a State acting in the official capacity of the officer or employee, shall not be immune, under the eleventh amendment of the Constitution of the United States or under any other doctrine of sovereign immunity, from suit in Federal court by any person, including any governmental or nongovernmental entity, for infringement of plant variety protection under section 2541 of this title, or for any other violation under this subchapter.

(b) In a suit described in subsection (a) of this section for a violation described in that subsection, remedies (including remedies both at law and in equity) are available for the violation to the same extent as such remedies are available for such a violation in a suit against any private entity. Such remedies include damages, interest, costs, and treble damages under section 2564 of this title, and attorney fees under section 2565 of this title.

Part M - Intent and Severability

7 USC 2581 - Intent

It is the intent of Congress to provide the indicated protection for new varieties by exercise of any constitutional power needed for that end, so as to afford adequate encouragement for research, and for marketing when appropriate, to yield for the public the benefits of new varieties. Constitutional clauses 3 and 8 of article I, section 8 are both relied upon.

7 USC 2582 - Severability

If this chapter is held unconstitutional as to some provisions or circumstances, it shall remain in force as to the remaining provisions and other circumstances.

7 USC 2583 - Repealed. Pub. L. 96574, 20, Dec. 22, 1980, 94 Stat. 3352

Section, Pub. L. 91–577, title III, § 144, Dec. 24, 1970, 84 Stat. 1559, exempted certain plants from provisions of this chapter.