Agricultural Marketing Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2012 -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued certificates of protection to developers of 39 new varieties of seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants. They include bentgrass, bermudagrass, bluegrass, corn, cotton, lettuce, pea, potato, rape, ryegrass and soybean.

The Plant Variety Protection Act provides legal protection in the form of intellectual property rights to developers of new varieties of plants.

“A certificate of protection is awarded to an owner of a crop variety after an examination shows that it is new, distinct from other varieties, and genetically uniform and stable through successive generations,” said Administrator David Shipman, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). “The public benefits as the recipient of lower prices from increased productivity, and from quality food, feed, fiber and other products, that result directly from improved plant varieties.”

The term of protection is 20 years for most crops, and 25 years for trees, shrubs and vines.

The owner of a protected variety has exclusive rights to multiply and market the seed of that

The 39 certificates are:

--the Villa variety of velvet bentgrass, developed by DLF International Seeds, Halsey, Ore.;

--the Casino Royale variety of bermudagrass, developed by Pure-Seed Testing, Inc., Hubbard, Ore.;

--the Aviator, Rubicon and Yankee varieties of Kentucky bluegrass, developed by Novel AG, Inc., Saint Paul, Ore. & Columbia River Seeds, LLC, Plymouth, Wash.;

--the CV940888 variety of field corn, developed by Monsanto Technology LLC, Waterman, Ill.;

--the PHBBK variety of field corn, developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., Johnston, Iowa;

--the FM 1740B2F variety of cotton, developed by Cotton Seed International Proprietary Limited (ACN 065 327 915), New South Wales, Australia, Bayer CropScience AG, Monheim, Germany;

--the 779020G variety of cotton, developed by Monsanto Technology LLC, St. Louis, Mo.;

--the Flint variety of lettuce, developed by Enza Zaden Beheer B.V., Enkhuizen, The Netherlands;

--the Showtime variety of lettuce, developed by Harris Moran Seed Company, Modesto, Calif.;

--the Saigon variety of lettuce, developed by Rijk Zwaan Zaadteelt en Zaadhandel B.V., De Lier, The Netherlands;

--the Independence and Infineon varieties of lettuce, developed by Progeny Advanced Genetics, Inc., Salinas, Calif.;

--the Nerea and Black Belt varieties of lettuce, developed by Nunhems BV, Haelen, The Netherlands;

--the Sienna variety of field pea, developed by Brotherton Seed Co., Inc., Moses Lake, Wash.;

--the BELLAROSA variety of potato, developed by EUROPLANT Pflanzenzucht GmbH, Lüneburg, Germany;

--the Deep Purple variety of rape, developed by Sakata Seed Corporation, Yokohama, Japan;

--the Transformer and LineDrive GLS varieties of perennial ryegrass, developed by NexGenTurf Research, LLC, Albany, Ore.;

--the Apple GL variety of perennial ryegrass, developed by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, N.J. & Z Seeds, LLC, Berlin, Md.;

--the Gray Goose variety of perennial ryegrass, developed by Pure-Seed Testing, Inc., Hubbard, Ore.;

--the Primary variety of perennial ryegrass, developed by DLF International Seeds, Halsey, Ore.;

--the Palmer GLS* variety of perennial ryegrass, developed by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, N.J.; and

--the XR31AL10, XB48T10, XR33W10, XR29T10, XR34D10, XR32Q10, 95Y71, 93Y30, 92Y91, 95Y50, RJS14001, RJS00003, RJS37004 and RJS31006 varieties of soybean, developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Johnston, Iowa.

* In the United States, seed of this variety (1) shall be sold by variety name only as a class

of certified seed and (2) shall conform to the number of generations specified by the owner of the rights (84 STAT. 1542, as amended, 7 U.S.C. 2321 ET SEQ).

AMS administers the Plant Variety Protection Act, which provides time-limited marketing protection to developers of new and distinct seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants ranging from farm crops to flowers.

For more information, contact the Plant Variety Protection Office at (301) 504-5518, fax (301) 504-5291 or the Internet at www.ams.usda.gov/pvpo.

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