THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ----------------	SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM Independence - Freedom – Happiness --------------
No. 15/2004/PL-UBTVQH	Hanoi, March 24, 2004

ORDINANCE

ON PLANT VARIETIES

Pursuant to the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which was amended and supplemented under Resolution No. 51/2001/QH10 of December 25, 2001 of the X^th National Assembly, the 10^th session;

Pursuant to Resolution No. 21/2003/QH11 of November 26, 2003 of the XI^th National Assembly, the 4^th session, on the 2004 law- and ordinance-making program;

This Ordinance provides for plant varieties.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1.- Scope of regulation

This Ordinance provides for the management and conservation of plant gene sources; the research into, selection, creation, assay, expertise, test, recognition and protection of, new plant varieties; the evaluation, selection and recognition of maternal plants, initial plants, variety gardens, variety forests; the production and trading of plant varieties; and the management of quality of plant varieties.

Article 2.- Subjects of application

This Ordinance shall apply to Vietnamese organizations and individuals, foreign organizations and individuals operating in the domain of plant varieties in the Vietnamese territory.

Where international agreements which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has signed or acceded to contain provisions different from those of this Ordinance, such international agreements shall apply.

Article 3.- Interpretation of terms

In this Ordinance, the following terms are construed as follows:

1. A plant variety means a grouping of plants which are uniform and of a certain economic value, recognizable by the expression of the characteristics mandated by a genotype and distinguishable from any other plant groupings through the expression of at least one of the said characteristic, and heritable through repeated propagation.

Plant varieties used in agricultural production, forestry and aquaculture include seeds, tubers, fruits, roots, trunks, branches, leaves, saplings, grafts, buds, flowers, tissues, cells, spores, spawns, weeds, algae and microalgae.

2. A new plant variety means a plant variety newly selected, created or imported for the first time, which is distinct, uniform and stable but not yet on the list of plant varieties permitted for production and trading.

3. A protected new plant variety means a new plant variety which is granted the new plant variety protection title.

4. Plant gene source means whole living plants or living parts thereof carrying hereditary information, able to create, or take part in creating, new plant varieties.

5. Assay of a new plant variety means the process of monitoring and assessing under given conditions and for a given period in order to determine the distinctness, uniformity, stability, the value of cultivation and use of a plant variety.

6. Trial production means the process of producing a new plant variety which has been assayed and permitted for production in a given area under mass production conditions.

7. Expertise of a plant variety means the process of examining the quality of the plant variety batch under production right on fields or gardens in order to identify the variety properness, hereditary purity and the level of mixture with another variety or plant species.

8. Test of a plant variety means the process of analyzing the quality criteria of the variety samples in laboratories.

9. Pure seeds means seeds which retain stable hereditary characteristics through repeated propagation.

10. Authored seeds mean pure seeds selected and created by an author.