During the registration of plant varieties by foreign companies in Ukraine, there is a problem of indicating the author of the variety in the application for the plant variety, because in most cases the author of the variety is a company, but according to the legislation of Ukraine it can only be a natural person.

According to Art. 1 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Rights to Plant Varieties” the author of the variety is an individual (natural person) who discovered or invented and improved the variety.

Thus, in the documents for registration of plant varieties in Ukraine, the author of the variety must be specified as a natural person.

At the same time, the applicant company can be a variety breeder. This requires to submit an Agreement of order on the creation of a variety or an Employment agreement with the author of the variety.

According to Art. 16 of the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Rights to Plant Varieties” the right to apply for a variety belongs to any person who can be considered a breeder of this variety. If the variety was created by the author of the variety in connection with the execution of an employment agreement (contract) or an Agreement of order on the creation of a variety, the right to submit an application for the variety belongs to the employer (customer) as a breeder. In such a case, sufficient confirmation of the employer’s (customer’s) right to submit an application for a variety is a note in the application that the variety was created in connection with the execution of an Agreement of order on the creation of a variety or an Employment agreement.