Tests for distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS)
DUS test. To promote modern agriculture varieties with improved agronomic value, breeders ask copyright protection on the plant variety for cultivation area. With the accession of Moldova to the UPOV Convention, Act of 1991 related to intellectual property protection for plant varieties, in our country also has been developed an action plan in patenting plant varieties and drafted the Law on Protection of Plant Varieties No. 39 - XVI in 2008. Responsible for the patentability of varieties are the State Agency for Intellectual Property (AGEPI) and the State Commission.
State Commission in this process, has the mission for technical examination of new plant varieties to conditions of patentability in the field experiences, in which varieties are tested on distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS test) at least a cycle of vegetation (if applicable) in compliance with testing methodology, developed and approved by UPOV. If variety is promoted for legal copyright protected by patent in one of the neighboring countries, also a member of the Union, variety may be patented in office, based on recognition of DUS test conducted by an authorized center in such activities.
The technical examination of varieties at patentability conditions is a common procedure for all European Union countries. Thus is followed unification of phenotypic description of varieties across the Union, to create and maintain databases of common descriptors for certain characteristics of the plant and to facilitate exchange of data among members of the Union.
In practice of varieties testing at DUS, new plant varieties without legal protection in one of the member countries of UPOV, usually they are scheduled for testing in the field, in set of at least one similar variety, and several baseline varieties with known characters, but patented varieties in some UPOV member countries are based on patented recognition of DUS test.
For this annual program of activities are performed the following tasks:
