Netherlands, Plant Variety Protection

A plant variety right granted by the Community Plant Varieties Office was revoked by the Board of Appeal for the first time in the history of the CPVO. The rights in question had been granted for two varieties of Limonium, Sunglow Blue and Sunglow White, both similar to another Limonium variety called Misty. The European distributor of the Misty varieties disagreed with the decision and appealed against it. The requirements for grant are stability, uniformity and distinctiveness. Upon successive plantings aimed at assessing the case, a number of plants were lost. The BoA decided that the remaining plants were not sufficient for evaluation and therefore rejected the granting. The tests will be repeated, and the variety may eventually meet the requirements for granting.