1612 UPOV Convention On November 8, 1981, the 1978 text of the
“International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of
Plants” (generally known by its French acronym as the UPOV
Convention) took effect in the United States and two other
states that had not been party to the 1961 text, Ireland and New
Zealand. As of September 24, 2000, 46 states were party to the
UPOV Convention: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany,
Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan,
Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation,
Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of
America, and Uruguay. Most states adhere to the 1978 text. The
United States adheres to the 1991 text, and has a reservation
under Article 35(2) of the text (whic