### Plant Varieties Protection Ordinance 《植物品種保護條例》

3. Application
(Replaced 2 of 2009 s. 4)This Ordinance applies to the Government and the Offices set up by the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
(Amended 2 of 2009 s. 4)

4. Plants to which Ordinance applies
(Replaced 2 of 2009 s. 5)(1) This Ordinance applies to the plants listed in the Schedule.
(2) The Secretary for Environment and Ecology may, by notice in the Gazette, amend the Schedule. (Amended 78 of 1999 s. 7; L.N. 106 of 2002; L.N. 130 of 2007; L.N. 144 of 2022)

5. Registrar of Plant Variety Rights
(1) The Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation shall be the Registrar of Plant Variety Rights for the purposes of this Ordinance. (Amended L.N. 331 of 1999)
(2) The Registrar may authorize in writing any public officer to perform or exercise all or any of the functions which are imposed or conferred on him by this Ordinance.

6. Appeals against decisions of the Registrar
Except as otherwise prescribed, an appeal lies to the court, to the extent and in the manner provided in Part IV, against any decision of the Registrar made under this Ordinance.

7. Registrar not liable in respect of official acts
(1) The Registrar shall not be taken to warrant the correctness or validity of the registration of a plant variety right under this Ordinance or under any international agreement, or convention, which has been applied to Hong Kong.
(2) The Registrar is not subject to any liability by reason only of the fact of any examination required or authorized by this Ordinance, or any such international agreement or convention, or any report or other proceedings consequent on such examination.
(3) No proceedings lie against any public officer authorized by the Registrar under section 5(2) in respect of any matter for which, by virtue of this section, the Registrar is not liable.

### Plant Varieties Protection Ordinance 《植物品種保護條例》

8. Register to be maintained
(1) The Registrar shall maintain a register called the Register of Plant Variety Rights.
(2) There shall be entered in the register—
(a) notice of every decision of the Registrar to make or decline to make a grant of a plant variety right;
(b) such particulars as may be required to be entered by this Ordinance or as may be prescribed; and
(c) any other matters and information relating to plant varieties or plant variety rights whose entry in the register appears to the Registrar to be important or useful.
(3) The register need not be kept in documentary form but shall be kept in such manner as may be prescribed by manual, mechanical, electronic, optical or other means, and provision shall in particular be prescribed for—
(a) public inspection of the register;
(b) the supply of certified or uncertified copies, or extracts, of entries in the register; and
(c) publication in each year of any matter or information entered in the register, including information as and relating to plant varieties for which a grant has been made and which remains in force for that year.

9. Rectification of the register
(1) Any person having a sufficient interest may apply to the Registrar for the rectification of an error or omission in the register.
(2) Except where the Registrar directs otherwise, the effect of rectification of the register is that the error or omission in question shall be deemed never to have been made.
(3) The Registrar may, on request made in the prescribed manner by the grantee of a registered plant variety right, enter any change in his name or address as recorded in the register.
(4) The Registrar may remove from the register matter appearing to him to have ceased to have effect.

10. Registration to be prima facie evidence of validity
In any proceedings before the court relating to a registered plant variety right, the registration of a person as grantee of a plant variety right shall be prima facie evidence of the validity of the original registration and of any subsequent assignment or other transmission of it.

11. Certificate of validity of contested registration
(1) If in proceedings before the court the validity of the registration of a plant variety right is contested and it is found by the court that the plant variety right is validly registered, the court may give a certificate to that effect.
(2) If the court gives such a certificate and in subsequent proceedings—
(a) the validity of the registration is again questioned; and
(b) the grantee obtains a final order or judgment in his favour,
he is entitled to his costs as between solicitor and client unless the court directs otherwise.
(3) Subsection (2) does not extend to the costs of an appeal in any such proceedings.

### Plant Varieties Protection Ordinance 《植物品種保護條例》

12. Burden of proving use of plant variety right
If in any proceedings before the court to which a grantee or a person authorized by licence or otherwise under section 25(1) is a party of a question arises as to the use to which a registered plant variety right has been put, it is for the grantee or that person to show what use has been made of it.

### Plant Varieties Protection Ordinance 《植物品種保護條例》

13. Application for grant
(1) Every application shall be in such manner and form as the Registrar may require and shall—
(a) be accompanied by the quantity of reproductive material, if any, prescribed in respect of varieties of the kind concerned;
(b) be completed and signed by or on behalf of the applicant;
(c) nominate an address for service in relation to that application, being an address within Hong Kong; and
(d) be accompanied by the prescribed application fee.
(2) Within the prescribed period after making an application, the applicant shall give to the Registrar—
(a) in such detail as the Registrar requires, a description of—
(i) the origin and breeding of the variety concerned;
(ii) the botanical features of that variety; and
(iii) those aspects of that variety that, in the opinion of that applicant, distinguish it from those other varieties whose existence was a matter of common knowledge at the time of that application; and
(b) the proposed denomination for that variety.
(3) Within the prescribed period after being requested by the Registrar to do so, the applicant shall furnish the Registrar with—
(a) such further reproductive material of the variety concerned as the Registrar may specify;
(b) any other information that the Registrar thinks relevant and requests from that applicant.
(4) An application that complies with subsection (1) at the time it is received at the office of the Registrar shall, for the purposes of this Ordinance, be deemed to be made at that time.
(5) An application that does not comply with subsection (1) at the time it is received at the office of the Registrar shall, for the purposes of this Ordinance, be deemed to be made at the time at which it first complies with that subsection while being held at that office.
(6) If satisfied that an application complies with subsection (1) the Registrar shall—
(a) notify in the Gazette the making of that application; and
(b) advise the applicant accordingly.
(7) The Registrar shall notify in the Gazette every proposed denomination for a variety given to the Registrar by any applicant that, in the opinion of the Registrar, complies with the prescribed requirements.
(8) For the purposes of subsection (2)(a)(iii) and section 18(4)(b), common knowledge of a variety is established if that variety is a variety—
(a) in respect of which a grant or an application has been made under this Ordinance;
(b) in respect of which in a UPOV country an equivalent grant or equivalent application has been made;
(c) which has been precisely described in any publication;
(d) which appears or has been included in a reference collection; or
(e) which has been cultivated or marketed for a period exceeding the prescribed period.