The currently adopted law for the protection of Plant Varieties and Plant Breeders' Rights is Law No. 17 of 2009. However, in 2017, Ministerial Decree No. 377 of 2017 was issued, designating the new plant varieties registrar and outlining plant breeders' rights.
Applications for the registration of plant varieties are submitted to the relevant department at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE).
According to the law, a plant variety is considered new if its reproductive material or harvested variety has not been offered for sale, sold, or transferred to others in any way, directly or indirectly, with the consent of the breeder for commercial purposes before the application submission, for more than one year within the country and for more than four years outside the country, and for more than six years for grapes and trees.
A variety is deemed homogeneous if its essential characteristics are sufficiently uniform, considering the expected variation in the distinctive features that characterize its multiplication or reproductive process, whether sexually or asexually.
A variety is considered stable if its fundamental genetic characteristics remain unchanged as a result of successive multiplication or reproduction, or at the end of each specific multiplication or reproduction cycle.