By Dr. Eric Lei Tang and Eric A. Szweda, Troutman Sanders

In 1997, China initiated its scheme to encourage the creation of new plant varieties and to promote the development of agriculture and forestry, through the promulgation of the Regulations of The People's Republic of China on the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (the Regulations).¹ The Regulations of the State Council set into motion a plant variety protection certification system in China. The Regulations took effect on October 1 1997. China started to accept new plant variety applications on April 23 1999, upon becoming a party to the Universal Convention on the Protection of Plant Varieties (UPOV), which is administered by the Geneva-based International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants.² The administrative departments in the State Council for agriculture and forestry became the "examining and approving authorities". To this end, on June 16 1999, the Ministry of Agriculture issued its Detailed Administrative Rules for Implementation of Regulation on the Protection of New Plant Varieties (Agricultural Section), and on August 10 1999, the State Forestry Administration issued its Detailed Administrative Rules for Implementation of Regulation on the Protection of New Plant Varieties (Forestry Section) (collectively the Detailed Administrative Rules).³ Between April 23 1999 and July 31 2005, the Ministry of Agriculture alone received 2495 new plant variety protection applications and issued 572 new plant variety certificates.⁴

Administrative Enforcement