UPOV-ROM 2012/04 - International Union for the Protection of New ...

Contents of the UPOV-ROM 2012/04 EUROPEAN UNION: (a) CPVO
http://www.cpvo.europa.eu/
Commission, and their alternates. The Council advises the CPVO, formulates general
guidelines and policies and issues opinions. It also constitutes the budget authority for the
CPVO and scrutinizes and monitors its activities and those of its President.
CPVO management: the CPVO is managed by its President, nominated by the Council of
the European Union in accordance with a strict regulatory procedure. The President’s duties
include taking all necessary steps to implement the budget and ensure the smooth running of
the CPVO within the framework of the powers entrusted to it under the Community
regulations.
The President is assisted by a Vice-President who would take over should the President be
prevented for some reason from fulfilling his normal duties. The President has delegated
some duties to the Vice-President.
Internal organization: internally, the CPVO consists of three separate units: the Technical
Unit, the Financial and Administrative Unit and the Legal Unit.
The Board of Appeal: a Board of Appeal has been established which is responsible for
deciding on appeals made against certain kinds of technical decision taken by the CPVO.
The Board is made up of a Chairman and alternate, and members chosen by the Chairman
from a list (drawn up on the basis of a strict regulatory procedure) depending on the cases
under consideration. The members of the Board of Appeal are independent.
The decisions of the Board of Appeal can be appealed against to the Court of Justice of the
European Communities in Luxembourg.
Other institutions: various Community institutions impinge directly or indirectly on the
work of the CPVO: the Council, the Court of Auditors (monitoring revenues and
expenditure), the European Commission and the European Court of Justice.
IV. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SCHEMES
Previously, a breeder wanting to protect a variety throughout the European Union had to
submit an application to each of the Member States. Since the new Community protection
system was introduced, the applicant need submit only one application to obtain the same
level of protection.
Community plant variety protection cannot be combined with national protection or with a
patent. Should Community protection be granted for a variety, any national protection (or
patent) subsequently granted for the same variety is ineffective. Where Community
protection is granted after the grant of national protection (or a patent), the latter is
suspended for the duration of the Community protection.
For a specific variety to be granted Community protection, a technical examination of its
distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) must be carried out. To avoid needless
repetition, the CPVO can make use of the results of earlier DUS examinations carried out by
the examination offices of the Member States for official purposes.