Cambodia’s Law on Seed Management and Plant Breeder’s Rights was enacted in 2008, but it was not until recently that new plant varieties could successfully be registered for protection in the country. Although the law has been in place for some time, recent developments confirmed the application process and a schedule of charges for the registration of new plant varieties. With these developments, breeders have been able to register their new plant varieties in Cambodia since March 1, 2024.

Applicants for new plant variety protection must be Cambodian nationals, foreign nationals domiciled in Cambodia, or permanent residents of either a country that is a contracting party to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) Convention or a country with which Cambodia has signed a memorandum of understanding on plant variety protection.

Applicants can also claim a priority date from the first application for the same plant variety filed in any contracting party of the UPOV Convention within 12 months of the earliest application’s filing date.

To be eligible for protection, new plant varieties must satisfy the following criteria:

• Novelty: A variety is considered “new” if, at the date of filing the application for new plant variety protection, it has not been sold, marketed, or otherwise disposed of others—by or with the consent of the breeder—for more than:
  • One year for any plant variety in Cambodia;
  • Six years for trees and vines or four years for all other plant varieties in countries besides Cambodia.
• Distinctiveness: A variety must be clearly distinguishable from any other existing varieties.
• Uniformity: A variety must be sufficiently uniform in its relevant characteristics.
• Stability: A variety must remain unchanged in its essential characteristics at the end of each cycle of propagation and in each generation.

The last three criteria are often grouped together as “DUS” when referring to the testing that is carried out in the substantive examination of new varieties to determine if they are protectable.

A variety denomination—the generic name of the plant variety—is also required. The denomination must enable the variety to be identified and must not be confusing or mislead the public about the characteristics, value, or identity of the variety or the breeder’s identity. The denomination must also not be similar to the denomination of a variety already registered in Cambodia, or to an existing denomination used for the same species in Cambodia or any other contracting party to the UPOV Convention.

Only denominations that are designated or registered in contracting parties to the UPOV Convention can be proposed or registered in Cambodia, unless the denomination is deemed inappropriate for Cambodian culture. In such cases, the registrar will ask the applicant to provide another denomination.

The examination process is jointly conducted by the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MISTI) and the Ministry of Agricultural, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF). The MISTI is responsible for the formality examination, while the MAFF handles the substantive examination (i.e., the DUS test). If all requirements are satisfied, the MISTI will grant the plant breeder’s rights, and a Certificate of Grant of Plant Variety will be issued after the registration and publication fees are paid.

Once registered, the protection of a plant variety lasts 25 years from the date of grant for trees and vines, and 20 years for other plants. The plant breeder must pay an annuity fee to maintain the validity of the plant variety.

The breeder’s authorization is required for any production, reproduction, conditioning for propagation, offering for sale, selling, marketing, importing, exporting, or stocking of a variety. The breeder’s right owner is entitled to assign or transfer the rights, which must be in writing and recorded at the MISTI.

While plant variety protection is one of the lesser-known forms of intellectual property rights, its importance should not be underestimated in Cambodia., where agriculture remains a vitally important sector of the economy. A strong plant variety protection regime can encourage domestic research and development, while leading to increased productivity and higher quality crops.

This article first appeared in Managing Intellectual Property.