– Law of Ukraine on Protection of Rights to Plant Varieties of April 21, 1993, in the version of the Law of June 10, 2023.

– International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), Act of 1978, as of June 6, 1995, and Act of 1991, as of January 19, 2007.
– The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille), as of December 22, 2003.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, since May 16, 2008.

Plant variety: a separate group of plants (clone, line, first-generation hybrid, population) within the lower known botanical taxa (genus, species, variety).

Rights to plant varieties: intellectual property rights for variety certified by a plant variety patent (PBR); proprietary right of property for dissemination of a variety certified by the state registration of variety (PVR, NLI); proprietary right of property for dissemination of a variety certified by the state registration of variety, for the variety listed  in the member States of the European Union and/or in the United States of America, including the acquisition of rights regarding variety maintainer; for the public domain variety or the common variety certified by the state registration (maintainer); personal non-proprietary property rights for variety certified by the state registration (author of a variety).

Applicant: an author of the variety, a breeder, other persons who have acquired the right to the variety by law or under agreement, any person who wants to become a maintainer of a public domain variety or a common variety, representative(s) in intellectual property matters.

Novelty: a variety is considered new if, before the date of submission of the application, an applicant or another person, with his consent, did not sell or in any other way bring material of the variety into commerce: in the territory of Ukraine - one year before this date; on the territory of another state: for tree and shrub crops and grapes - six years before this date; for plants of other species - four years before this date.

Distinctness: a variety meets the requirement of distinctness if, by the manifestation of its characteristics, it is clearly different from any other variety that is generally known at the date of filing the application. A variety is well-known if the variety has been granted legal protection and/or it is entered in the official register of varieties of any contracting party to the Convention, an application has been submitted for the purpose of granting legal protection and/or entry into the official register of plant varieties in any contracting party to the Convention, providing that a decision has been made on the application to grant legal protection or to enter the variety into the register.

Homogeneity: a variety is considered homogeneous if, taking into account the characteristics of reproduction, all plants of this variety remain sufficiently similar (homogeneous) according to the main characteristics specified in the description of the variety.

Stability: a variety is considered stable if its main characteristics, indicated in the description of the variety, remain unchanged after repeated breeding, and in the case of a special breeding cycle - at the end of each cycle.

Competent Authorities: (1) Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine (Minagropolicy) - Division for Seeding and State Registration of Plant Varieties; (2) Ukrainian Institute of Plant Varieties Examination (UIPVE) - Division DUS, VCU Testing, Division of Review of Applications for the Varieties, Molecular Laboratory, Division of Database Registries PBR, NLI; (3) State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection - Division for State Supervision (control) of the Plant Varieties Rights Protection.

Filing requirements for an application:
1. Request for recognition of rights to a variety in the prescribed form;
2. Technical questionnaire of the variety in the prescribed form, containing information about the origin of the variety, including the methods and original forms used for its creation, which are confidential and shall be kept confidential by the Competent Authority and expert institution;
3. Indicators of the variety's suitability for dissemination in Ukraine in the prescribed form, if the intention to acquire the proprietary right for dissemination of the variety is indicated in the application;
4. Documents confirming that the applicant has the right to submit an application, unless: the applicant can be identified as a breeder on the basis of the information exchange regarding the submitted applications between the competent authorities of the contracting parties to the Convention; the application was submitted by the breeder; the application is submitted by any person to acquire the status of a maintainer of a public domain variety or a common variety.

Along with the application, the following documents should be provided:
1. A document confirming payment of the application filing fee, which shall be submitted together with the application or within two months from the date of application submission;
2. A document confirming the authority of a representative (if an application is submitted via a representative). A power of attorney issued outside Ukraine shall be subject to legalization in accordance with the procedure established by law, and the form and duration of such a power of attorney are determined by the legislation of the country where it was issued. If the power of attorney is not drawn up in Ukrainian, a notarized translation into Ukrainian shall be enclosed thereto;
3. A declaration of priority, a copy of the prior application with indication of the date of submission of this application and its number, certified by the body to which it was submitted, and its certified translation into Ukrainian. These documents must be received by the Competent Authority before the end of the three-month period from the date of submission of the application;
4. Photos of plants or plant organs of the variety (shall be enclosed only for botanical taxa whose qualification examination is carried out based on information provided by the applicant). Such photos must show the plant organs of the subject matter of the application (at least two) and include features that allow identification of the variety.

Electronic filing: an application for a variety may be submitted in paper or electronic form at the applicant's choice.

Official sample shall be provided along with the application in the quantity and quality required for the qualification examination.

In the event of state registration of a variety registered in the EU and/or the USA, at the request of the applicant(s), an application is drawn up in the prescribed form, without conducting a qualification examination. The applicant shall enclose to such an application a description of the variety, drawn up in an optional form.

Recordal: the Competent Body, during the consideration of the application, enters into the Register of Applications and publishes in the official publication of the Competent Body the following information about the application: number and date of submission of the application; priority date, if declared; full name of the applicant and their representative; designation of the botanical taxon (in Ukrainian and Latin); variety name; selection code; full name or name of the breeder(s); full name of the author(s) of the variety, if available; types of rights claimed. Any person has the right to familiarize himself with the application materials by submitting a written request in an optional form.

A Competent Authority is the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine (Minagropolicy), which accepts and registers applications (number and date), confirms receipt of payment (fee for the application submission and consideration). The Ministry then sends to the applicant a notice of the acceptance of the application for the variety for consideration. The Ministry is responsible for the import of samples of the variety for the purposes of the qualification examination of the variety and the official sample. The Ministry reviews the application or authorizes the Ukrainian Institute of Plant Varieties Examination (UIPVE) for the review (formal and substantive examination). Timeline: 20 days.

Ukrainian Institute of Plant Varieties Examination (UIPVE): the qualification examination (technical examination): DUS/VCU. After completing the qualification examination the Expert Opinion should be issued. For the varieties registered in the member States of the European Union and/or in the United States of America at the request of the applicant - without conducting the qualification examination - within 15 days from the date of sending the notification about the positive results of the application review, the Ministry issues a decision on the state registration of the variety.

Provisional protection: provided for; it extends over the period from the date of publication of an application to the day following the date of the State registration or the date of entering information about withdrawal of the application or refusal of registration in the Register of Applications.

Registration: the applicant must pay the state duty for the state registration of rights to the variety and/or the fee for the state registration of the variety within thirty days from the date of receipt of the Expert Opinion.

Beginning of protection: the protection starts with the registration of a variety at the State Register of Plant Varieties.

Duration: duration of a patent for a vine, tree and shrub variety is thirty years. This term starts from the date of registration and ends on the last calendar day of the thirtieth year immediately following the year of registration. Duration of patents for the other plant varieties is twenty-five years, respectively. The duration of validity of intellectual property rights to a plant variety may be extended, but for not more than five years.

Annual fees: the registered owner of the variety must pay the official annual fee for every year of the patent term beginning from the calendar year in which the registration occurs. The fee for the following year is paid during the last six months of the current calendar year.

Voluntary licenses - Assignment: a plant breeders' rights owner has the right to assign to any natural person or legal entity his entire rights or grant the right to use his variety under the terms of a license agreement. The assignment of intellectual property rights to a plant variety is subject to state registration in the Register of Patents with publication of respective information in the official publication. A permit (license) for the use of a plant variety shall not be subject to mandatory state registration. Information on issued permits (licenses) for the use of plant varieties may be published in the official publication and entered into the Register of Patents at the initiative of the party to the license agreement. A fee shall be paid for entering the specified information into the Register of Patents at the initiative of the party to the license agreement.

Compulsory licenses: possible; compulsory licenses are granted by the Cabinet of Ministers and the court. In case of non-use of a variety by the plant breeders' rights owner within the first three years following the grant, or if the plant breeders' rights owner refuses to grant a license, any person who wishes to use the variety may apply to the court for the grant of the compulsory non-exclusive license. Compulsory licenses may also be granted in the events of war or state of emergency for the term of up to four years.

Use of the variety name: compulsory.

Nullification: plant breeders’ rights may be declared invalid in full or in part by the court. The grounds for invalidation may be non-conformity of the variety with the DUS requirements by the date of filing the application or in case where the rights were granted to a person who was not entitled to obtain the plant breeders’ rights.

Infringement and penalties: administrative and penal sanctions are provided for, such as imposition of fines on an infringer, hard labor or imprisonment.