9.3 Variety Name Change

Date Published

Key Legislation:

Plant Breeder's Rights Act 1994:

  • s31 Requests for variation of application

The Acceptance Examiner assesses whether a PBR variety’s name may be changed.

A variety name, also known as a denomination, may be changed at any time prior to the application being granted. Please note that variety names (denominations) include synonyms. 

Variety names may be changed post grant but only in very limited circumstances, for example, to correct an obvious mistake or where the name breaches legislation.  These requests must be referred to the PBR Registrar.

A request to change a variety name (denomination) may be received from a Qualified Person (QP), the applicant or the agent. However, the signed written request may only come from the applicant or agent. Currently there is no specific form to request a change of variety name.

The request to change a variety name or denomination (which includes synonyms) may be received only from the applicant(s) or agent.   

Qualified Persons may alert PBR to the imminent change but cannot authorise it. If a QP has alerted PBR then you must contact the applicant or agent and confirm the change and request them to submit a written request. Please note that currently there is no specific form for such requests. They should submit their request via eServices to the PBR Registrar providing the details of the name change.

To process a Change of Variety Name (Denomination), follow the instructions outlined at 11.4.16 Variations - Processing change of variety name (denomination). To process changes to synonyms, follow the instructions outlined at 11.4.16 Variations - Processing changes to synonyms

Amended Reasons

Amended Reason Date Amended

Removed extraneous space before A in 4th Paragraph.

Content migration

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