Representatives of rights to plant varieties in Vietnam: Scope of rights and responsibilities

According to Articles 33, 34 and 35 of Decree No. 88/2010/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, scope of rights and responsibilities of representatives of rights to plant varieties are prescribed as follows:

- Scope of rights of representatives of rights to plant varieties

+ Rights-to-plant varieties representation service providers shall provide services within the scope of authorization and may re-authorize other rights-to-plant varieties representation service providers to exercise these rights, if so agreed in writing by the authorizer.

+ Rights-to-plant varieties representation service providers may give up activities of representing rights to plant varieties if they have lawfully transferred incomplete representation activities to other rights-to-plant varieties representation service providers.

+ A rights-to-plant varieties representative are forbidden from taking the following actions:

• Acting as the representative concurrently for disputing parties to rights to a plant variety;

• Withdrawing the application for a protection certificate, announcing the abandonment of the protection or withdrawing a complaint about the establishment of rights to plant varieties without permission of the authorizer;

• Cheating or forcing clients in the signing and performance of contracts on rights-to-plant varieties representation services;

• Using or disclosing information concerning protection registration applications not yet published by the plant variety protection agency.

- Responsibilities of representatives of rights to plant varieties

+ Notify the authorizer of charges and fees related to procedures for establishing and exercising rights to plant varieties: and representation service charges according to the charge tariff registered with the plant variety protection agency;

+ Keep secret information and documents related to cases in which they act as representatives;

+ Provide truthful and accurate information regarding notices and requirements of competent state agencies for the establishment and exercise of rights to plant varieties; promptly hand over protection certificates and other decisions to their clients;

+ Protect the lawful rights and interests of the represented party by timely responding to requirements of competent state agencies regarding the establishment and exercise of rights to plant varieties;

+ Notify state management agencies competent to establish and exercise rights to plant varieties of all changes in names and addresses of and other information on the represented party and the names, addresses and representative of the representing party.

View more details at Decree No. 88/2010/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, effective from October 01, 2010.

Nguyen Phu

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