I would like to register a new variety of apple, and wondered if anyone has experience of how to register plant breeders rights with DEFRA, as the information on their website appears to be both incomplete and out-of-date.
Elizabeth Moriarty
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Full details on the Plant Variety Rights system can be found on the ‘Fera (The Food and Environment Research Agency)’ website: http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk
Click on ‘Plants, Bees & Seeds’, then on ‘Plant Breeders Rights’. This should give you all the necessary details or go direct to:
http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantVarieties/plantbreedersRights/applicationProcedure.cfm
Defra were kind enough to reply to me in person. Unfortunately there is not an amateur category for fruit cultivars, and the annual DUS test fee would be £1700, ensuring it is virtually impossible for an amateur breeder to register a new variety. I’m currently trialling a variety which is very promising in terms of appearance, flavour, vigour and disease tolerance, which I would like to start propagating and distributing to those that have expressed an interest, but there is little point if I lose all rights once it is in the public domain.
EU Plant Breeders Rights have now superseded UK Rights as a more secure way of protecting new varieties but even here the costs are prohibitive to the amateur. As a consultation even commercial companies struggle to justify these costs in what is a very competitive market. It is better to seek help from a commercial nursery who would be prepared to offer a voluntary royalty on sales even if for a limited period even perhaps to support a charity. Even so all new varieties need to be appraised on comparative trial for at least 5 years of fruiting to gain knowledge and confidence in its credentials before release because once it has been released it is in perpetuity, as will be its reputation.
(Christmas Pippin is a recent introduction and an example of this collaboration between an amateur and a nursery, reported on our main web site - here
Fruit Forum)
Thanks for the additional information, that has been most helpful. I’d thought such collaboration was probably the way forward, and have started keeping detailed records. I feel my cultivar is sufficiently unusual to be worth taking further (a heavy-cropping, very attractive deep red apple with ‘strawberry’ fruitiness, crisp texture and large size, which can be picked and eaten from the tree in late November/December but which also keeps well for at least a month) but I realise it will several more years of monitoring before I take it to the next stage.
Thank you both again for your help.