The Government of Ireland deposited its instrument of ratification of the 1991 Act of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants on December 8, 2011.
The purpose of UPOV is to provide and promote an effective system of plant variety protection, with the aim of encouraging the development of new varieties of plants, for the benefit of society.
Ireland, which is already one of the seventy members of UPOV, is the fourty-ninth member to become bound by the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention. The 1991 Act will enter into force for Ireland on January 8, 2012, one month after the deposit of its instrument of ratification.
