What legal mechanisms exist to protect rare plant varieties or ...?

According to Article 1 of the Agreement on cooperation in the field of conservation and use of genetic resources of cultural plants of the CIS member states, genetic resources of plants are plant material that is a potential source of valuable genes for use in breeding programs.

All legal relations arising in connection with the breeding, use, protection, alienation of new varieties of plants (breeding achievements) are regulated by the Civil Code of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine "On Protection of Rights to Plant Varieties" dated March 21, 1993, "On Seeds and planting material" dated December 15, 2009, "On the accession of Ukraine to the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants" dated December 2, 1961.

The object of the right to a variety is also a selection achievement in plant breeding that meets the conditions of patentability, that is, it is:

• new (the material of the variety was not known to civil circulation on the date of the patent issue);

• distinctive (clearly different from any other variety that is generally known);

• uniform (the results of breeding the variety coincide with its characteristics);

• stable (characteristics of the variety remain unchanged after its reproduction).

According to Art. Art. 10 - 15 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Protection of Rights to Plant Varieties", personal non-property intellectual property rights to a plant variety are evidenced by a certificate of authorship of a plant variety, intellectual property rights to a plant variety are evidenced by a plant variety patent, and property rights to intellectual property the distribution of the plant variety is evidenced by the certificate of state registration of the plant variety.

Article 38 of the above-mentioned Law stipulates that the right to distribute a variety in Ukraine shall arise from the date of adoption of the decision on state registration of the intellectual property right to distribute the variety. Subparagraph 2 of the specified article prohibits the distribution of varieties not included in the Register of Plant Varieties of Ukraine, unless otherwise established by law.