The Seed and Seedlings Act exists to protect varieties, and does not allow unauthorized third parties to cultivate, harvest, process, etc., registered varieties.
Trademark law isThe trademark and the goods/services you wish to protect are includedThis prevents third parties from using the trademark on those products or services.
Regarding goods and services, the Trademark Act divides them into 45 categories. For example, "orange seedlings", "orange fruit", and "orange juice" are each considered different goods.
<Comparison of systems>
| Seed and Seedlings Act | Law Name | Trademark law |
| Ministry of Agriculture | Registration address | Patent Office |
| Characters, etc. (Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana, Alphabet, Numbers) | Constitution | Characters, figures, three-dimensional shapes, or Combinations of these, colors, sounds, etc. |
| Grains such as rice and wheat Potatoes, vegetables, fruit trees, tea, flowers, etc. | Field | Products and services classified into 45 categories |
| Fruit trees, timber, ornamental trees, etc.: 30 years Other common plants live for 25 years | Protection period | 10 years (renewable) |
＜Caution here!＞
Coordination of registered variety names and trademarks
According to the Trademark Law and the Seed and Seedlings Law,Seeds, seedlings, etc.The trademarks cannot be identical or similar (Article 4, Paragraph 1, Item 14 of the Trademark Act, Article 4, Paragraph 1, Items 2 and 3 of the Plant Variety and Seed Act).
In addition, the trademarks of a registered variety and the harvested or processed products of that variety cannot be identical or similar (Article 3, Paragraph 1, Item 3 and Article 4, Paragraph 1, Item 16 of the Trademark Act).
Example: If you have a registered variety "Sun Orange" and have filed a trademark application for the trademark "Sun Orange"
| Specified product | "Seedling" | "Fruit, orange" | "orange juice" |
| Registration | × (Article 4, Paragraph 1, Item 14) | × (Article 3, paragraph 1, item 3 or Article 4, paragraph 1, item 16) | |
| *However, if a trademark application is filed during the application for variety registration, the following applies: | |||
| Registration | × (Article 4, Paragraph 1, Item 14) | △ (Article 3, paragraph 1, item 3 or Article 4, paragraph 1, item 16) *If the trademark examiner does not recognize the variety as a registerable variety, registration is not possible. | |
Plant variety registration and trademark registration are one set. Considering your development plans, let's protect your product from multiple angles by mixing intellectual property rights.
For information on protection measures, please see the following page.