Ecuador offers a protection system for new plant varieties, encouraging innovation in the agricultural sector.

To obtain this protection, the variety must meet four fundamental requirements: novelty, distinctness, uniformity, and stability.

  • Novelty: Novelty is lost if commercial exploitation began more than one year prior to the application in any member country of the Andean Community (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia) or more than four years prior (six years for trees and vines) outside the Andean Community.
  • Distinctness: The variety must be clearly distinguishable from any other variety whose existence is commonly known at the time of the application. The essential distinguishing characteristics must be identified, such as foliage, flowers, roots, colour, and size.
  • Uniformity: The variety must be sufficiently uniform in its essential characteristics, taking into account the expected variation according to its mode of reproduction, multiplication, or propagation. It is assessed that the unique characteristics appear in multiple plants, not just one.
  • Stability: The variety must retain its essential characteristics unchanged from generation to generation and at the end of each cycle of reproduction, multiplication, or propagation.

The application for protection must include the following documentation:

  1. Detailed description of the variety, including its generic denomination, trademark (if any), genetic information, and maintenance data.
  2. Name and address of the breeder and the applicant.
  3. Duly legalized power of attorney from the applicant.
  4. Duly legalized document transferring the breeder’s rights (from the individuals who worked on the project to the applicant, which is the owning company).
  5. Completed technical questionnaire. UPOV forms for the variety under application are used.
  6. Photographs of the variety.
  7. Certified copy of the priority document (if applicable).
  8. Information about the first sale (date) in Ecuador and outside the Andean Community (if applicable).
  9. Information on other protection applications for the same variety in other countries (filing dates, application numbers, etc., if applicable).

Ecuadorian legislation also requires the deposit of live samples of the variety with a UPOV-recognized international authority or in plantations or facilities belonging to the holder or an authorized local distributor in the country. In the case of local deposits, the following is required:

Technical Examinations: Ecuador’s Intellectual Property Law requires a technical examination of the varieties before granting protection. The results of tests conducted in other countries by UPOV-recognized entities are accepted as proof of compliance with the requirements of novelty, distinctness, uniformity, and stability. In such cases, the Ecuadorian office will directly request a certified copy of the results from the foreign entity specified in the application.

The breeder’s certificate is valid for 20 years for vines, forest trees, and fruit trees, and 15 years for all other species, counted from the date of granting. This certificate grants the holder the right to initiate legal actions to prevent or stop acts that infringe their rights, as well as to seek compensation for damages. The holder has the right to prevent third parties from performing, without their consent, acts such as producing, reproducing, multiplying, or propagating the reproductive material of the protected variety, offering it for sale, selling, importing, exporting, or possessing it for commercial purposes.