Cite as: 534 U. S. 124 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
Infringement of plant variety protection occurs, inter alia, if someone sells or markets the protected variety, sexually multiplies the variety as a step in marketing, uses the variety in producing a hybrid, or dispenses the variety without notice that the variety is protected.10
Since the 1994 amendments, the PVPA also protects "any variety that is essentially derived from a protected variety," § 2541(c)(1), and "any variety whose production requires the
10 Title 7 U. S. C. § 2541(a) provides in full: "(a) Acts constituting infringement "Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, it shall be an infringement of the rights of the owner of a protected variety to perform without authority, any of the following acts in the United States, or in commerce which can be regulated by Congress or affecting such commerce, prior to expiration of the right to plant variety protection but after either the issue of the certificate or the distribution of a protected plant variety with the notice under section 2567 of this title:
"(1) sell or market the protected variety, or offer it or expose it for sale, deliver it, ship it, consign it, exchange it, or solicit an offer to buy it, or any other transfer of title or possession of it;
"(2) import the variety into, or export it from, the United States; "(3) sexually multiply, or propagate by a tuber or part of a tuber, the variety as a step in marketing (for growing purposes) the variety;
"(4) use the variety in producing (as distinguished from developing) a hybrid or different variety therefrom;
"(5) use seed which had been marked 'Unauthorized Propagation Prohibited' or 'Unauthorized Seed Multiplication Prohibited' or progeny thereof to propagate the variety;
"(6) dispense the variety to another, in a form which can be propagated, without notice as to being a protected variety under which it was received;
"(7) condition the variety for the purpose of propagation, except to the extent that the conditioning is related to the activities permitted under section 2543 of this title;
"(8) stock the variety for any of the purposes referred to in paragraphs (1) through (7);
"(9) perform any of the foregoing acts even in instances in which the variety is multiplied other than sexually, except in pursuance of a valid United States plant patent; or
"(10) instigate or actively induce performance of any of the foregoing acts."
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