USDA GRANTS PROTECTION TO 27 NEW PLANT VARIETIES.

WASHINGTON -- The following information was released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued certificates of protection to developers of 27 new varieties of seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants. They include artichoke, barley, cotton, fescue, pepper, potato, watermelon and wheat.

The Plant Variety Protection Act provides legal protection in the form of intellectual property rights to developers of new varieties of plants.

"A certificate of protection is awarded to an owner of a crop variety after an

examination shows that it is new, distinct from other varieties, and genetically uniform and stable through successive generations," said Administrator Rayne Pegg, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). "The public benefits as the recipient of lower prices from increased productivity, and from quality food, feed, fiber and other products, that result

directly from improved plant varieties."

The term of protection is 20 years for most crops, and 25 years for trees, shrubs and vines. The owner of a protected variety has exclusive rights to multiply and market the seed of that variety.

The 27 certificates are:

--the D.G.-102 variety of artichoke, developed by Sulton Seed Research Corporation, Coachella, Calif.;

--the Expedition* variety of barley, developed by Malteurop Group, Reims, France;

--the CDC Frontier variety of chickpea, developed by Crop Development Centre, Saskatoon, Canada;

--the ST 5283RF variety of cotton, developed by Bayer CropScience LP, Research Triangle Park, N.C.;

--the Intrigue II variety of chewings fescue, developed by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, N.J.;

--the Endeavor II variety of tall fescue, developed by Pure-Seed Testing, Inc., Hubbard, Ore.;

--the Spyder LS variety of tall fescue, developed by Z Seeds, LLC, Berlin, Md., and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, N.J.;

--the SBY991273 variety of pepper, developed by Seminis Vegetable Seeds, Inc., Oxnard, Calif.;

--the Dakota Jewel variety of potato, developed by NDSU Research Foundation, Fargo, N.D.;

--the Baby Boomer variety of potato, developed by A.S. Heijboer, Kloelinge, Netherlands;

--the Colorado Rose and Purple Majesty varieties of potato, developed by President Colorado Certified Potato Growers' Association, Inc., Center, Colo.;

--the Rio Rojo variety of potato, developed by Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station, Texas;

--the Cecile variety of potato, developed by HZPC Holland B.V., Joure, Netherlands;

--the 4XHDML6 and 90-4343ts varieties of watermelon, developed by Syngenta Seeds, Inc., Nampa, Iowa;

--the JD variety of club wheat, developed by Washington State University Research Foundation, Pullman, Wash.;

--the SY Gold* and SY605 CL* varieties of common wheat, developed by Syngenta Seeds, Inc., Junction City, Kan.;

--the Arcadia* variety of common wheat, developed by Syngenta Seeds, Inc., Vernon, Texas;

--the Select* variety of common wheat, developed by South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, Brookings, S.D.;

--the 112304W, 112307W and 112308W varieties of common wheat, developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Johnston, Iowa;

--the UICF-Lambert* variety of common wheat, developed by University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho;

--the Babe variety of common wheat, developed by Washington State University Research Foundation, Pullman, Wash.; and

--the Desert King-High Protein* variety of durum wheat, developed by the Regents of the University of California, Oakland, Calif.

*In the United States, seed of this variety shall be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed and shall conform to the number of generations specified by the owner of the rights (84 STAT. 1542, as amended, 7 U.S.C. 2321 ET SEQ).

AMS administers the Plant Variety Protection Act, which provides time-limited marketing protection to developers of new and distinct seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants ranging from farm crops to flowers.

For more information, contact the Plant Variety Protection Office at (301) 504-5518, fax (301) 504-5291 or the Internet at www.ams.usda.gov/pvpo.

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