In particular, the filing of an application for protection in any other country for any
other variety shall be deemed to render that other variety a matter of common knowledge
from the date of the application or registration, provided that the application leads to the grant
of a breeder’s right or to the entering of said other variety in an official register of varieties, as
the case may be. Such common knowledge may further be established by various references
such as cultivation or commercialization already underway, the presence in a reference
collection, or a precise description in a publication.
8. The variety shall be deemed to be uniform if, subject to the variation that may be
expected from the particular features of its propagation, it is sufficiently uniform in its
relevant characteristics.
9. The variety shall be deemed to be stable if its relevant characteristics remain
unchanged after repeated propagation or, in the case of a particular cycle of propagation, at
the end of each such cycle.
10. Any plant variety may give rise to the granting of a protection title known as a
“plant breed certificate”.
The right to protection of a variety shall belong to the first applicant, unless proved
otherwise.
11. The breeder’s right may be requested by:
— Moroccan natural persons or legal entities;
— foreign natural persons or legal entities with their domicile or company head office
in Morocco;
— nationals of States and natural persons or legal entities with their domicile or
company head office in the territory of the said States, where those States’ legislation grants
Moroccans protection at least equivalent to that provided for in this Law.
12. Any breeder who has duly filed an application for the protection of a variety in a
State which grants Moroccans protection at least equivalent to that conferred by this Law
(“first application”) shall, for the purpose of filing an application for the grant of a breeder’s
right for the same variety with the authority (“subsequent application”), enjoy a right of
priority for a period of 12 months. This period shall be computed from the date of filing of
the first application. The day of filing shall not be included in that period.
13. In order to benefit from the right of priority provided for in Article 12 above, the
breeder shall, in the subsequent application, claim the priority of the first application. The
competent authority may require the breeder to provide, within a period of three months as
from the date of filing of the subsequent application, a copy of the documents which
constitute the first application, certified to be a true copy by the authority with which that
application was filed, and samples or any other evidence that the variety which is the subject
matter of both applications is the same.
The breeder shall be allowed a period of two years after the expiration of the period of
priority or, where the first application is rejected or withdrawn, an appropriate time set by the
competent authority after such rejection or withdrawal, in which to furnish any necessary
information, document or material provided for by this Law, with a view to the examination
provided for in Article 50 below.
Events which occur during the time period provided for in Article 12 above, such as the
filing of another application or the publication or use of the variety that is the subject of the