4Plant varieties

4.1. What are plant varieties?

Plant varieties constitute a category of intellectual property with a legal status similar to that of patents. A plant variety is a group of plants that are distinguishable from any other group since they have specific features that remain unchanged after repeated propagation processes and can propagate without changing.

In Spain, applications for plant varieties are processed by the autonomous community authorities.

Finally, the Spanish Criminal Code expressly includes the counterfeiting of plant varieties, the unauthorized propagation or multiplication of a plant variety, and the unauthorized use of the name of said varieties as criminal offences, which are punishable with fines, special disqualification and even prison.