Law No. 26 of 2015 amending certain provisions of the Intellectual Property Rights Protection Law promulgated by Law No. 82 of year 2002.

This Law consists of 4 articles. It recognizes the commercial rights entailed with the plant variety protection and protect these rights. It also deletes the reference to the disclosure requirement and the breeder is no longer obligated to disclose the origin of genetic resources relied on to develop a new plant variety, neither to share their utilization benefits with interested parties (art.200 of the previous Law). The requirements that must be demonstrated to merit protection for a specific plant variety (novelty, uniformity, stability and distinctness) are preserved.
It provides that a variety is new, if it has not been exploited for one year prior to the filing date of the application inside Egypt and for four years for crops exposed or circulated outside Egypt, and this period should not exceed six years for vines and trees (art.192).
Article 194 defines the breeder’s right to cover the harvested seed of the protected varieties, stating that the authorization of the breeder is required in respect of ‘harvested material, including entire plants and parts of plants’. The following acts in respect of the propagating material of the protected variety shall require the authorization of the breeder (i) production or reproduction (multiplication); (ii) conditioning for the purpose of propagation; (iii) offering for sale; (iv) selling or other marketing; (v) exporting; and (vi) importing and stocking. The breeder may make his authorization subject to conditions and limitations. According to amended Article 194, essentially derived varieties are eligible for plant breeder rights in the same way as for any initial variety.
Article 195 provides exceptions to the breeder’s right, stating that the protection shall not prevent third parties form activities related to (i) experiments and scientific research purposes; (ii) breeding, cross-breeding and selection for the purpose of breeding new varieties; and (iii) teaching and training purposes.
Article 199 states that the Minister of Agriculture may directly restrict the beneficiary to his rights in order to achieve the public interest. In this case, he is entitled to compensation.