Law on Plant Variety Protection.

This Law sets out rules and procedure for the protection of new plant varieties and granting and protection of plant breeder's rights. The 57 Articles of the text are divided into 11 Parts: General Provisions (1), Conditions for Variety Protection (2), Person Entitled to the Variety Protection and to Plant Breeder's Right (3), Plant Breeder's Right (4), The Procedure for Variety Protection (5), Transfer of the Plant Breeder's Right and Assignment of the Use of Plant Breeder's Right (6), Obligations of the User of the Plant Breeder's Right and of the Third Persons (7), Judicial Protection (8), Control (9), Penal Provisions (10) and Transitional and Final Provisions (11).
The new plant variety shall be protected by granting the plant breeder's right. The plant breeder's right shall be granted if the variety is new, distinct, uniform, stable and identified by the denomination defined by this law. The plant variety is condidered new at the date of filling of the application form (filling date), if it has been sold or economically exploited with the consent of the entitled person in the Republic of Slovenia for no more than one year before the filling date and abroad for no more than four years before the filling date (for trees and vine the period is six years before the filling date). The plant breeder's comprise the right for economic exploitation and using the protected variety. The plant breeder's right shall expire at the end of the twentieth year from the date of the granting; except for the hops, grapevine and trees it shall expire at the end of the twenty-fifth year. The Office for variety protection shall keep registers of applications and protected varieties. The plant breeder's right is transferable wholly or partially to another person. The supervision of this Law shall be entrusted to agricultural and forestry inspectors.