– Plant Seed Act, amended and promulgated on April 21, 2004, with the title being formally revised to "Plant Variety and Seed Act" wherein Article 17 was further amended and promulgated on August 25, 2010, and Article 4 was further amended and promulgated on May 23, 2018. Enforcement Rules of Plant Seed Act were amended and promulgated on January 6, 2020, wherein Article 22-1 was added. The essential contents thereof are in line with the regulations in the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).

Scope of protection: the holder of variety right shall have the exclusive right to preclude others from engaging in the following acts with respect to plant seeds, ferns, mosses, multicellular algae, and other cultivated plants that are cultivated for the production of agricultural products: production or propagation; conditioning for the purpose of propagation; offering for sale; selling or otherwise marketing; importing or exporting; or holding for any of the above-mentioned five purposes. In addition to plant seeds, the scope of protection further covers (1) harvested material obtained through use of seeds of such variety; (2) products obtained through direct use of the harvested material; and (3) dependent varieties. The protection of variety right shall not extend to the act for research purpose, and the act by farmers of keeping the plant seeds or the harvested material obtained from plant seeds of dependent varieties, for the farmer’s own use. The principle of exhaustion of rights is also introduced into this Act. 

Registrability: plant variety that has the characteristics of novelty, distinctiveness, uniformity and stability, as well as an appropriate denomination, may be the subject of an application.

Novelty: means that prior to the filing date, no plant seed or harvested material of the variety has been sold or promoted by, or with the consent of, the right holder either inside Taiwan for longer than one year or outside Taiwan for longer than six years in the case of woody or perennial vine plants, or for longer than four years in the case of all other plant species.

Employees’ rights: variety right and the right to apply for a variety right for a variety bred by, or discovered and developed by an employee within the performance of job duties shall belong to the employer, provided that the employer gives the employee an adequate reward or remuneration. However, the employee shall enjoy the right to have his or her name indicated as the breeder. For the varieties that are bred by the employee “outside the performance of his or her job duties”, the employee shall be entitled to the variety right and the right to apply for the variety right. 

Priority: an applicant, who has filed his/her first application legally in a foreign country or a WTO member which allows Taiwan nationals to claim priority within twelve months from the filing date of their first application, may claim a priority benefit for his/her Taiwan application. 

Publication: the central competent authority shall publish an application within one month from the filing date, and shall grant interim protection for such published application between the publication date and the approval date. The central competent authority shall take national interests, industrial policies, and comprehensive development into account when reviewing the main purposes declared in the application of a transgenic plant that has passed field examination for the issuance of the documentation of the approval.

Duration: for a woody or perennial vine variety: twenty-five years; for other plant varieties: twenty years.

Opposition: not provided for.

Compulsory licenses: provided for. 

Penalty for infringement: no criminal sanctions, but fines for violation of this Act.