Plant Breeders’ Rights Act (S.C. 1990, c. 20)

Marginal note:Certificate of examiner as proof

54 A certificate purporting to be signed by an officer of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office who is appointed or designated a principal examiner, stating that a substance or a sample submitted to that examiner by any other officer of that Office has been examined by that examiner and stating the result of the examination is admissible in evidence in any prosecution for an offence under this Act without proof of the signature or official character of the person appearing to have signed the certificate and, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, is proof of the statements contained in the certificate.

Plant Breeders’ Rights Office

55 [Repealed, 1997, c. 6, s. 77]

Marginal note:Plant Breeders’ Rights Office

• 56 (1) The Plant Breeders’ Rights Office is part of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency established by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Act.

• Marginal note:Commissioner

  (2) The President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency shall designate a Commissioner of Plant Breeders’ Rights.

• Marginal note:Employees

  (3) The President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has the authority to appoint the employees of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office.

• Marginal note:Functions of Commissioner

  (4) The Commissioner shall receive all applications, fees, documents and materials submitted for plant breeders’ rights, shall do all things necessary for the granting of plant breeders’ rights and for the exercise of all other powers conferred, and the discharge of all other duties imposed, on the Commissioner under this Act and shall have the charge and custody of the register and any other documents or materials belonging to the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office.

• Marginal note:Absence, etc., of Commissioner

  (5) Where the Commissioner is absent or unable to act or the office of Commissioner is vacant, such other officer as may be designated by the President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency shall, in the capacity of Acting Commissioner, exercise the powers and perform the duties of the Commissioner.

Marginal note:Officers and employees not to acquire plant breeder’s rights

57 A person who has been appointed as an officer or employee of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office may not, during the period for which the person holds the appointment and for one year thereafter, apply for the grant of any plant breeder’s rights or acquire directly or indirectly, except under a will or on an intestacy, any right or interest in any such grant.

Marginal note:Delegation

• 58 (1) The Commissioner may in writing authorize, either generally or particularly, such officers or employees of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office as the Commissioner deems fit to exercise and perform, subject to any general or special directions given or conditions attached by the Commissioner, all or any of the powers conferred and duties imposed on the Commissioner by or pursuant to this or any other Act.

• Marginal note:Presumption of authority

  (2) Every person purporting to act pursuant to any authorization under this section shall, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, be presumed to be acting in accordance with the terms of the authorization.

Marginal note:Engagement of services

• 59 (1) The Commissioner

  • (a) for the purposes of carrying out and evaluating the results of tests and trials referred to in section 23, may engage the services of persons other than employees of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and pay to those persons fees in accordance with a scale determined by the Minister, with the approval of the Treasury Board, in respect of their services; and

  • (b) may constitute panels of persons, composed of employees of the Agency or persons appointed or engaged pursuant to paragraph (a), which have the function of conducting examinations for purposes described in that paragraph and of advising the Commissioner as to

    • (i) the examinations necessary or expedient for those purposes, and

    • (ii) the results of those examinations.

• Marginal note:Discretion unaffected

  (2) Nothing in subsection (1) prejudices any discretion exercisable by the Commissioner.

Marginal note:Seal of office

• 60 (1) The Commissioner shall cause a seal to be made for the purposes of this Act and each certificate of plant breeder’s rights issued under paragraph 27(3)(b) to be sealed with that seal. The Commissioner may also cause any other instrument or copy of any document issuing from the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office to be sealed with that seal.

• Marginal note:Notice of seal and other documents

  (2) Every court, judge and person shall take notice of the seal of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office and shall admit impressions of the seal in evidence without proof thereof and shall take notice of and admit in evidence, without further proof and without production of the originals, all copies or extracts certified under the seal to be copies of or extracts from documents on file in that Office.

Marginal note:Time limit extended

61 Where any time limit or period of limitation specified by or under this Act expires on a day when the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office is closed for business, that time limit or period of limitation shall be deemed to be extended to the next day when that Office is open for business.

Records

Marginal note:Index

62 The Commissioner may prepare an index of names, together with descriptions comprising particulars of distinguishing identifiable characteristics, of such plant varieties in each of the prescribed categories as are ascertainable by the Commissioner to exist as a matter of fact within common knowledge.

Marginal note:Register

63 The Commissioner shall keep a register of plant breeders’ rights and, subject to the payment of any fee required under this Act to be paid in the case of any entry in the register, the Commissioner shall enter in it

• (a) in relation to each plant variety that is the subject of those rights, the prescribed category to which it belongs;

• (b) the denomination of the variety, and any change to that denomination;

• (c) the full name and address of the breeder of that variety;

• (d) the name and address of the person whom the Commissioner is satisfied, in the manner provided by or under this Act, ought to be registered as the holder of the plant breeder’s rights respecting that variety;

• (e) the date of the grant of plant breeder’s rights respecting that variety;

• (f) the date of, and the reason for, any termination or invalidation of plant breeder’s rights;

• (g) if plant breeder’s rights are the subject of a compulsory licence under section 32, a statement to that effect;

• (h) the prescribed particulars of each application for the grant of plant breeder’s rights and of any abandonment or withdrawal of the application; and

• (i) the prescribed particulars, subject to the provisions of this Act and the regulations, that are considered by the Commissioner to be appropriate for entry in the register.

Marginal note:Evidence of registered matters

• 64 (1) The register is evidence of all matters entered in it as directed or authorized by this Act.

• Marginal note:Certified copy or extract

  (2) A document purporting to be a copy of any entry in, or an extract of any contents of, the register and to be certified by the Commissioner to be a true copy or extract is evidence of the entry or contents without further proof or production of the register.

Marginal note:Certificate of Commissioner

65 A certificate purporting to be made by the Commissioner to the effect that an entry has or has not been made in the register or that any other thing authorized by or under this Act to be done in the course of the administration of this Act has or has not been done is evidence of the matters specified in that certificate.

Marginal note:Rectification of errors

• 66 (1) Subject to subsection (2), the Commissioner may, on such terms, if any, as the Commissioner deems proper, authorize

  • (a) the correction of any clerical error or error in translation appearing in a certificate of plant breeder’s rights issued under paragraph 27(3)(b), in an application for plant breeder’s rights, in any document filed for the purposes of such an application or in the register or index;

  • (b) the amendment of any document that belongs to the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office and in respect of which no express provision for its amendment is made in this Act; and

  • (c) the condonation or correction of any procedural irregularity in any proceedings subject to the authority of the Commissioner.

• Marginal note:When rectification permissible

  (2) Any power conferred by subsection (1) may, of the Commissioner’s own motion or on request in writing, be exercised if, but only if, that exercise of the power is in the interests of the due administration of this Act and is not prejudicial to the interests of justice.

• Marginal note:Opportunities for representations by interested persons

  (3) The Commissioner, if intending to exercise any power pursuant to subsection (1), shall give notice of the intention to each person appearing to the Commissioner to have an interest in the matter and shall not carry out the intention without first giving that person a reasonable opportunity to make representations with respect thereto.

Marginal note:Preservation of documents

• 67 (1) An application for the grant of plant breeder’s rights and other documents filed with the Commissioner in connection with any such rights shall, subject to subsection (3), be preserved for the prescribed periods.

• Marginal note:Public accessibility

  (2) The Commissioner shall make the following accessible to the public on the Internet and, if the Commissioner considers it appropriate, by any other means:

  • (a) the register;

  • (b) the index; and

  • (c) any documents referred to in subsection (1) that are prescribed and any other documents that should, in the Commissioner’s opinion, be made accessible to the public.

• Marginal note:Withdrawn application papers to be returned

  (3) Where an application for plant breeder’s rights has been withdrawn, the Commissioner shall return to the applicant at the address indicated in the application all the papers and other material submitted in connection with the application but, to any extent to which it is impracticable for the Commissioner to do so, and on the expiration of the prescribed period for so doing, the Commissioner shall destroy the material.

• (4) [Repealed, 2015, c. 2, s. 45]

Marginal note:Service of notices, etc.

• 68 (1) A notice or other document required to be given or transmitted to any person pursuant to this Act may be given or transmitted

  • (a) by delivering it to the person;

  • (b) by sending it by registered mail addressed to the person at any place pursuant to notice thereof given by the person or, if no such notice is given, at the person’s usual or latest known address in Canada; or

  • (c) in any other manner prescribed.

• Marginal note:Deemed delivery

  (2) Where any notice or other document is sent by registered mail pursuant to subsection (1), it shall, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, be deemed to be given or transmitted at the time at which the registered letter containing it would be delivered in the ordinary course of post.

Marginal note:Defect not to invalidate notices

69 A defect in a notice given pursuant to this Act, if the notice is such as to intelligibly and substantially effect the required notification, shall not render unlawful any administrative action executed in respect of the matter to which the notice relates and shall not be a ground for exception to any legal proceeding that may be taken in respect of that matter.

Publication

Marginal note:Matters to be published

• 70 (1) The Commissioner shall cause to be published in the Canada Gazette such particulars of the following as are prescribed:

  • (a) every application that is not rejected pursuant to section 17;

  • (b) every request included pursuant to subsection 9(1) in an application that is not rejected pursuant to section 17;

  • (c) and (d) [Repealed, 2015, c. 2, s. 47]

  • (e) every grant or refusal to grant plant breeder’s rights;

  • (f) every assignment of plant breeder’s rights of which the Commissioner is informed;

  • (g) every application for a compulsory licence;

  • (h) every grant or refusal to grant a compulsory licence and every thing done under subsection 32(4) with respect to a compulsory licence; and

  • (i) every surrender of plant breeder’s rights.

• Marginal note:Notice to Department of Industry

  (2) The Commissioner shall, on causing particulars of a request referred to in paragraph (1)(b) to be published, give notice of the request to the Department of Industry.

• Marginal note:Matters to be published

  (3) In addition to the matters referred to in subsection (1), the Commissioner shall cause to be published in the Canada Gazette

  • (a) such other matters as the Commissioner considers appropriate for public information; and

  • (b) a notice of every annulment under section 34 or revocation under section 35.

Marginal note:Provision for publication of Plant Varieties Journal

• 71 (1) Where the volume of matters to be published in the Canada Gazette pursuant to section 70 is such as to warrant their inclusion wholly or partly in a separate journal, the Commissioner may cause to be published periodically a journal, to be called the Plant Varieties Journal, containing such of those matters as the Commissioner, subject to any regulations made pursuant to paragraph 75(1)(g), considers expedient.

• Marginal note:Notice of intention to publish Journal

  (2) The Commissioner shall, by publication in the Canada Gazette, at least twenty-eight days before commencing the issue of the Plant Varieties Journal, give notice of intention to do so.

• Marginal note:Cessation of publication of Journal

  (3) If at any time the volume of matters for the publication of which the Plant Varieties Journal is available ceases to be such as described in subsection (1), the Commissioner may cause the issuing of the Plant Varieties Journal to cease but, at least twenty-eight days before doing so, the Commissioner shall, by publication in that Journal, give notice of intention to do so.

• Marginal note:Publication in Journal to be deemed publication in Canada Gazette

  (4) For the purposes of this Act other than of subsections (2) and 75(2), publication in the Plant Varieties Journal pursuant to this Act shall be deemed to be publication in the Canada Gazette and references in this Act to the Canada Gazette shall be construed accordingly.