Ministerial Resolution No. 103/2015 issuing the executive regulations for the Law on Protection of the Right of Breeders of New Plant Varieties.

This Resolution consisting of 22 articles aims at regulating breeders' rights in protecting the new plant varieties and applies to the genera, species, and plant varieties mentioned in the attached Appendix. It establishes that (i) it is not permissible to propagate foundation seeds without obtaining written approval from the competent directorate; (ii) a Committee is formed by a decision of the Minister to register and approve new plant varieties with the following main tasks 1- studying protection requests; 2- approving or rejecting the naming of the new plant variety; 3- approving the examination of the new plant variety to verify its compliance with the Law conditions; 4- approval of the examination of the new plant variety by a scientific body working in the field of agricultural research; 5- adoption of the protection certificate; 6- grant the right of priority to the applicant for protection; 7- grant the right of temporary protection to the applicant for protection; 8- grant a compulsory license to exploit the protected breeder's right; (iii) the Committee may register new plant varieties submitted by government agencies without conducting experiments on them; (iv) to obtain the right of priority an application has to be submitted to the competent directorate on the form prepared for this purpose. The Regulation deals also with (i) procedural matters related to the protection application; (ii) registration of the expiration, transfer, and publication of the breeder's rights; (iii) dismission of the right of the plant breeder; (iv) grievance procedures and publication requirements; and (v) fees.