Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) E-News

This newsletter provides updates about the PVPO team, helpful Plant Variety Protection (PVP) tips, and 

other valuable information that we are certain you will find useful.

In order to obtain PVP, a variety must be new, distinct, uniform, 

and stable and have a name (denomination). We discussed the 

concepts of new, distinct, uniform, and stable in the past 2 

newsletters. In this issue, we discuss Variety Naming

(Denomination) for PVP and provide tips and examples to help 

select a name that doesn’t conflict with other variety names.

In the U.S., variety names for agricultural (corn, soybean, etc.) and 

vegetable crops are established from the name that the variety is 

first sold under, in accordance with the Federal Seed Act. That 

variety name is permanent once a sale has occurred and cannot 

be changed or re-used (with few exceptions).

The U.S. does not have a variety name registration system (many countries have a formal registration 

system which requires breeders to register new varieties). The USDA’s Seed Regulatory and Testing 

Division (SRTD) performs a voluntary variety name clearance where a seed developer submits a 

proposed variety name and SRTD checks if a conflict exists within the U.S (see 

https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/seed-testing/applying-for-variety). SRTD maintains a list of cleared 

variety names that breeders can check to see if a name conflict exists. As part of the PVP application 

process, we ask that applicants receive a SRTD name clearance confirmation for agricultural and 

vegetable crops before we issue a PVP certificate.

The situation is different for flowers, fruits, and potatoes because they don’t fall under the FSA. For 

these crops, the PVPO works with applicants to make sure their variety names do not conflict with 

existing names, by checking the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) 

and European Union’s Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) variety name databases.

Sometimes a variety name is registered outside the U.S. for one variety but that same name is used for a 

different variety within the U.S. The PVPO has avoided this situation by working with PVP applicants to 

ensure that variety names submitted with PVP applications do not conflict with preexisting names.

As a final check, before issuing a PVP certificate for any crop, the PVPO searches both UPOV and CPVO 

Plant Variety Databases to determine if that variety name has been used before. If variety name 

conflicts are found, the PVPO informs the UPOV Country, SRTD and the applicants to work out a 

solution.

Here are some tips to help speed the PVP application review and avoid variety name conflicts:

• A variety can only have one name.

• The same name cannot be given to more than one variety of the same kind or a closely related 

kind. For example, kinds of the same species such as pumpkin and squash, field corn and sweet 

corn, and garden bean and field bean cannot have varieties with the same name.

• Closely related kinds that are known to intercross such as wheat and triticale cannot have 

varieties with the same name.
• A variety name cannot be misleading. Avoid names that are similar to an existing name but 

differs only in spelling or punctuation.

• Varieties with names derived from the name of an existing variety must be closely related to the 

existing variety.

• Variety names cannot be reserved for future use.

• The variety name will become permanent once the variety has been sold.

• Variety names should not be the same as existing trademarks (U.S. trademarks can be found at 

Patent and Trademark Office website = www.uspto.gov).

• Variety names may contain trademarks, but the trademark status is lost in the sense that

anyone marketing seed of that variety must use the entire variety name including the 

trademark.

• A trademark symbol or registered trademark symbol cannot be displayed in the variety name.

• A trademark by itself cannot be a variety name and a variety name cannot be trademarked.

We welcome your suggestions on topics for future newsletters as well as ideas on how we can improve 

our service. Please feel free to contact the PVPO if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.

The USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

The PVPO Listserv informs subscribers of updates or important program announcements posted to the 

website. You can login to modify your email profile or unsubscribe at 

http://info.ams.usda.gov/PVPO/login.php. You can also modify your email profile or unsubscribe.

Anyone interested in subscribing may do so by visiting: www.ams.usda.gov/PVPO. Click on the “PVPO 

Listserv” link in the Resources box on the right-hand side.

For more information, please contact:

Plant Variety Protection Office

Science & Technology Program

Agricultural Marketing Service

United States Department of Agriculture

Office: (202) 720-1128

PVPOmail@ams.usda.gov