Plant Breeders' Rights Cancellation & Infringement

In Tanzania, unless otherwise provided under the legislation regulating seed standards, during the period between the filing of the application and the final disposition of the application, an applicant for plant breeders' rights have the sole right to sell, produce, reproduce and multiply propagating material of the variety or to stock the variety for any of these purposes and during the term of the right, the holder have the sole right to sell, reproduce and multiply propagating material of the variety, or to stock the variety for any of these purposes. Where the holder of the plant breeders' rights has not had a reasonable opportunity to exercise his right in relation to the propagating material, the holder may assert the same rights with respect to harvested material obtained through the unauthorized use of propagating material of the variety, and the products from it. These rights do not apply to (a) varieties that essentially are derived from the protected variety, where the protected variety is not itself essentially derived from another variety; (b) varieties which are not clearly distinguishable from the variety; and (c) varieties whose production required the repeated use of the protected variety. A variety shall be deemed to be essentially derived from another variety when: (a) it is predominantly derived from the initial variety, or from a variety that is itself predominantly derived from the initial variety, while retaining the expression of the essential characteristics that result from the genotype or combination of the genotypes of the initial variety; (b) it is not clearly distinguishable from the initial variety; and (c) except for the difference, which result from the act of derivation, it conforms to the initial variety in the expression of the essential characteristics that result from the genotype or combination of genotypes of the initial variety. Unless otherwise provided under the law, these acts are not considered to be infringements of the plant breeders’ rights: (a) acts done privately for non - commercial purposes; (b) acts done for the purpose of breeding other varieties; (c) acts done for the purpose of breeding varieties; and (d) acts done by farmers with the purposes of propagating, on their own holdings, the product of the harvest which they have obtained by planting the protected variety or a variety. 

During the term of the plant breeders' rights, the Registrar may at any time order the holder of that right to- (a) produce propagating material which is capable of producing the variety, with the morphological and physiological and other characteristics which the variety possessed at the time the plant breeders' rights was granted; (b) provide information, documents or material for verifying the maintenance of the variety; and (c) satisfy the Registrar that the holder of plant breeders' rights is able to comply with a request, including facilities for the inspection by or on behalf of the Registrar, of the measures taken for the preservation of the variety concerned. Failure or inability to comply with an order of the Registrar will be grounds for cancellation of the plant breeders' rights.