The Plant Variety Protection Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture issues certificates of Protection for new varieties of plants.

Please use the list along with other information to check proposed variety names for possible conflicts. Also check out the Variety Naming Guidelines.

Search the variety names database using our database search form . This database has the same names as the downloadable lists above. Please read the instructions on how to use the search form before beginning your search.

If you find no conflicts and choose a name, please advise us of the selection and the date you plan to market the variety so we can add the name to the list and prevent someone else from unknowingly using the same name. If you have questions about the validity of the name you have chosen, you may contact our office at the address below.

Richard Payne

801 Summit Crossing Place, Suite C

Gastonia, North Carolina 28054-2193

Phone: 704-810-8871

FAX: 704-852-4189 (Lab), 704-852-4109 (Chief)

To prevent conflicts and violations of the Federal Seed Act, The Seed Regulatory and Testing Branch will review the variety name you have chosen prior to the variety being marketed. To request that a variety name be checked, please send an email to Kevin.Robinson2@usda.gov or submit the Variety Name Check Application on-line form.

Variety names cannot be reserved for future use.

Include the variety name, the kind (or the classes such as warm season grass or cool season turf grass), and your return address. Allow about two weeks for a response.

The application for protection under the Plant Variety Protection Act requires that the name of the variety for which protection is sought much be reviewed by our office.

The Seed Branch doesn't clear names for flowers, shrubs, trees or any non-FSA crops. To request a clearance for those items go to http://www.ishs.org/sci/icralist/icralist.htm

Our clearance procedure applies only to kinds covered by the Federal Seed Act. Note: Because there is no variety name registration system, our database is incomplete. We cannot assure that names cleared are free of conflicts. Further, our clearance conveys no legal precedence to cleared names.

Please provide us with information about your new varieties and release date or date marketed. You can do this by sending us a description including the new name, experimental designation(s), kind, originator, date of naming (or release), type, and description. Providing the release date will insure that the variety name will become a permanent record in our database. You may use the on line form for this purpose. This information is, of course, voluntary on your part.

Providing us with this information will help us to prevent others from using the same name for the same kind or a closely related kind.