About Alice Smart: I’m Alice, a trainee patent attorney based in Manchester. I have a degree in genetics and biochemistry and a PhD in pharmaceutical science. Before joining the patent industry I worked for Wyeth and Astra Zeneca in formulation science and regulatory affairs. I am part of the life sciences team at Appleyard Lees and work for clients mainly in the life sciences field but I’ve also had the opportunity to work on mechanical, chemical and food science based inventions.
Each member of the life sciences team is given the opportunity to write an article for our website, and in April it was my turn. We can choose a subject we are particularly interested in or something related to what we have been working on. Over the last two years I have become involved in filing plant variety applications at the CPVO, and decided to write on this subject.
It has been a steep learning curve for me trying to negotiate law and practices of plant varieties, which in some respects are very similar to patents, but which can also vary widely. Just when I had started to get to grips with the application system at the CPVO everything changed following Brexit.
We have received a lot of questions this year about how to make UK plant breeder’s rights (PBR) applications based on existing CPVO applications and also about what happens to granted CPVRs in the UK. Therefore, I wrote about everything I have learnt so far regarding plant variety protection in the UK, post-Brexit.
Read the article – Plant varieties post Brexit: how to protect your variety in the UK
