A Brief Introduction of CPVO

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) has been operating since 27 April 1995. On 6 December 1996, the Intergovernmental Conference of representatives of the Member States (IGC) decided that the seat of the CPVO would be in Angers (France). The CPVO, which is a decentralized Community agency, has its own legal status. It is self-financing, mainly on the basis of the various fees paid. Detail of CPVO can be seen (here)

Structure of the CPVO:

The Administrative Council: the CPVO is supervised by its Administrative Council, comprising a representative of each Member State and a representative of the European Commission, and their alternates. The Administrative Council advises the CPVO, formulates its general orientations and general guidelines, provides opinions, constitutes the budgetary authority of the CPVO, examines and controls both its activities and those of its President.

The Administrative Council is in particular responsible for:

• Adopting the Budget
• Examining the management report of the President
• Entrustment of Examination Offices
• Discharging the President on the implementation of the budget
• Validating the Technical Protocols
• Granting of compulsory licenses

The composition of the Administrative Council:

The Administrative Council consists of a representative of each EU Member State and a representative from the European Commission, and their alternates. The representatives from the Member States have voting rights. Member States appoint the members and their alternates.
The Chairman and his deputy are selected among its members; the duration of their terms of office is three years and their mandate is renewable.The Administrative Council of the CPVO has adopted rules of procedures to allow non-governmental organizations operating in the sphere of plant variety protection under the Community plant variety protection system to send observers to its meetings.

Internal organisation of the CPVO: the CPVO consists of two units (the Technical Unit and the Finance and Administration Unit) and four general services, the Personnel Service, the Legal Service, the Quality Audit Service and the IT Service.

The Board of Appeal: a Board of Appeal has been established which is responsible for deciding on appeals made against certain kinds of decisions taken by the CPVO. The Board is made up of a Chairman and alternate, and members chosen by the Chairman from a list (drawn up on the basis of a strict regulatory procedure) depending on the cases under consideration. The members of the Board of Appeal are independent.

Chairman of the Board of Appeal : M. Paul VAN DER KOOIJ

Terms of office : 5 years from the date on which they took up their duties.

Qualified member

In accordance with Article 47(2) of Council Regulation (EC) n° 2100/94 on Community plant variety rights, the Administrative Council of the CPVO, during its 16^th February 2011 session, adopted the following list of qualified members of the Board of Appeal of the CPVO for a period of five years from 23rd February 2011.

1. Mr Cornelis Joost BARENDRECHT
2. Mr Pier Giacomo BIANCHI
3. Mr Richard BIANCHI
4. Mr Richard BRAND
5. Ms Beatrix BÖNISCH
6. Mr Zoltán CSURÖS
7. Mr Krieno FIKKERT
8. Mr Huibert GHIJSEN
9. Mr Joël GUIARD
10. Ms Helen JOHNSON
11. Mr Michael KÖLLER
12. Ms Muriel LIGHTBOURNE
13. Mr Miguel Angelo PINHEIRO DE CARVALHO
14. Mr Dirk REHEUL
15. Mr Kurt RIECHENBERG
16. Mr Timothy Wace ROBERTS
17. Ms Elizabeth SCOTT
18. Mr Hanns ULLRICH
19. Mr Nicolaas VAN MARREWIJK
20. Ms Geertrui VAN OVERWALLE
21. Mr Arnold VAN WIJK

The decisions of the Board of Appeal can be appealed against at the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg.

Other institutions: Various Community institutions such as the Council of the European Union, the Court of Auditors (control of income and expenditure accounts), the European Parliament and the European Commission impinge directly or indirectly on the activities of the CPVO.

Reference: CPVO Website.