Plant Varieties (Proprietary Rights) Act, 1980

Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act—

“The Appeal Committee” has the meaning assigned to it by section 14 (3) of this Act;

“authorisation” means an authorisation given in pursuance of section 4 (5) of this Act;

“the Convention” means the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants done at Paris on the 2nd day of December, 1961, as revised at Geneva on the 10th day of November, 1972, and the 23rd day of October, 1978, respectively;

“the Controller” means the Controller of Plant Breeders' Rights;

“Convention country” means a country or territory which is either a party to the Convention or one to which a declaration contained in an order made by the Minister under section 2 of this Act relates and which is for the time being in force;

“holder” means a holder of plant breeders' rights;

“the Journal” has the meaning assigned to it by section 19 of this Act;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Agriculture;

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under this Act;

“the register” has the meaning assigned to it by section 20 of this Act;

“sell” includes offer or expose for sale and invite to buy and kindred words shall be construed accordingly;

“variety” in relation to plants includes any clone, line, hybrid or genetic variant of any plant.

(2) References in this Act to reproductive material shall be construed as including references to—

(a) seeds for sowing,

(b) seed potatoes and other vegetative propagating material,

(c) ornamental plants and parts of such plants where used commercially as propagating material in the production of ornamental plants and cut flowers,

(d) whole plants which are not ornamental plants, as well as parts of such plants, where such whole plants or parts may be used as reproductive material.

(3) References in this Act to an applicant for plant breeders' rights, or to a holder, include, where the context allows, references to his predecessors in title or his successors in title, and in case two or more persons are co-proprietors of plant breeders' rights, such references shall in relation to those rights, be construed as including a reference to each of those persons.

(4) Where an ornamental plant or a part of such a plant is sold in the course of a business for use by the buyer for purposes other than propagation and such plant or part is used commercially by the buyer as propagating material, no provision of this Act shall be construed as not applying in relation to such buyer by reason only of the fact that the plant or part was so sold.