7 CFR § 97.5 - General requirements.
(a) Protection under the Act shall be afforded only as follows:
(1) Nationals and residents of the United States shall be eligible to receive all of the protection under the Act.
(2) Nationals and residents of Member States of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (including states which are members of an intergovernmental organization which is a UPOV member) shall be eligible to receive the same protection under the Act as is provided to nationals of the United States.
(3) Persons who are not entitled to protection under paragraph (a)(1) or (2) of this section, and who are nationals of a foreign state which is not a member of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, shall be entitled to only so much of the protection provided under the Act, as is afforded by such foreign state to nationals of the United States, for the same genus and species under the laws of such foreign state in effect at the time that the application for protection under the Act is filed, except where further protection under the Act must be provided in order to avoid the violation of a treaty to which the United States is a party.
(b) Applications for certificates shall be made to the Plant Variety Protection Office. An application shall consist of:
(1) A completed application form, except that the section specifying that seed of the variety shall be sold by variety name only, as a class of certified seed, need not be completed at the time of application.
(2) A completed set of the exhibits, as specified in the application form, unless the examiner waives submission of certain exhibits as unnecessary, based on other claims and evidence presented in connection with the application.
(3) Language and legibility: (i) Applications and exhibits must be in the English language and legibly written, typed or printed.
(ii) Any interlineation, erasure, cancellation, or other alteration must be made in permanent ink before the application is signed and shall be clearly initialed and dated by the applicant to indicate knowledge of such fact at the time of signing.
(4) To determine the extent of reciprocity of the protection to be provided under the Act, persons filing an application for plant variety protection in the United States under the provisions of paragraph (a)(3) of this section shall, upon request 1, furnish the Plant Variety Protection Office with a copy of the current plant variety protection laws and regulations for the country of which the applicant is a national, and an accurate English translation of such laws and regulations.
1 Copies and translations of foreign laws and regulations will be requested only if they are not in the files of the Plant Variety Protection Office. Applicants may learn whether such a request will be made by writing to the address given in paragraph (c) of this section.
(c) Application and exhibit forms shall be issued by the Commissioner. (Copies of the forms may be obtained from the Plant Variety Protection Office by sending an email request to PVPOmail@usda.gov or downloading forms from the PVPO website (https://www.ams.usda.gov/PVPO).
(d) Effective the date of these regulations and rules of practice, the signature of the applicant, or his or her agent or attorney on any affidavit or other statement filed pursuant to these regulations and rules constitutes a certification by the applicant. The signature certifies that all information relied on in any affidavit or statement filed in the course of the proceeding is knowingly correct and false claims have not been made to mislead.