Orders affecting your Rights: compulsory licences or sale orders

Any person may request the Commissioner to consider whether reasonable quantities of reproductive material (plants, seeds, etc.) of a protected variety are currently available for purchase by members of the public at a reasonable price.

However this request may only be made three years after the date Rights were granted for the variety concerned. The request must be accompanied by payment of the prescribed fee. After considering the request the Commissioner may, if he considers it warranted, issue a compulsory licence or a compulsory sale order to the person who made the request.

A compulsory licence permits its holder to produce for sale and to sell reproductive material of the protected variety. A compulsory sale order is more appropriate for a person who wants to receive reproductive material of the protected variety, but has no interest in producing reproductive material for sale.

In every case the Commissioner will require the person granted a compulsory licence or sale order to pay a specified royalty to the holder of the Plant Variety Rights grant.