EU General Court confirms that plant variety rights applicants must provide technical data to support requests to examine a new distinguishing characteristic
EU General Court confirms that plant variety rights applicants must provide technical data to support requests to examine a new distinguishing characteristic
How can an EU plant variety rights (PVR) applicant have an additional characteristic considered during the technical examination of the variety, if the characteristic doesn't already appear in the test guidelines? Image by pixel2013 via Pixabay. This question was considered in a recent case about an apple variety named 'Roat' ( Case T‑770/25 , judgment delivered 14 October 2026), where the General Court (Eighth Chamber) determined that it was not enough that the applicant mentioned an additional characteristic in the PVR application. Adema Srl v Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) confirmed that more is required from the applicant, including technical data to support a request to consider the new distinguishing characteristic. The Law Community plant variety rights will be granted if the variety meets the key criteria of novelty, a suitable denomination, and distinctness, uniformity and stability (the last three are collectively known as the "DUS" criteria). ...