Marginal note:Engagement of services

• 59. (1) The Commissioner

  • (a) for the purposes of carrying out and evaluating the results of tests and trials referred to in section 23, may engage the services of persons other than employees of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and pay to those persons fees in accordance with a scale determined by the Minister, with the approval of the Treasury Board, in respect of their services; and

  • (b) may constitute panels of persons, composed of employees of the Agency or persons appointed or engaged pursuant to paragraph (a), which have the function of conducting examinations for purposes described in that paragraph and of advising the Commissioner as to

    • (i) the examinations necessary or expedient for those purposes, and

    • (ii) the results of those examinations.

• Marginal note:Discretion unaffected

  (2) Nothing in subsection (1) prejudices any discretion exercisable by the Commissioner.

Marginal note:Seal of office

• 60. (1) The Commissioner shall cause a seal to be made for the purposes of this Act and each certificate issued pursuant to paragraph 27(3)(b) to be sealed with that seal and may cause any other instrument or copy of any document issuing from the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office to be so sealed.

• Marginal note:Notice of seal and other documents

  (2) Every court, judge and person shall take notice of the seal of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office and shall admit impressions of the seal in evidence without proof thereof and shall take notice of and admit in evidence, without further proof and without production of the originals, all copies or extracts certified under the seal to be copies of or extracts from documents on file in that Office.

Marginal note:Time limit extended

61. Where any time limit or period of limitation specified by or under this Act expires on a day when the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office is closed for business, that time limit or period of limitation shall be deemed to be extended to the next day when that Office is open for business.

Marginal note:Index

62. The Commissioner may prepare an index of names, together with descriptions comprising particulars of distinguishing identifiable characteristics, of such plant varieties in each of the prescribed categories as are ascertainable by the Commissioner to exist as a matter of fact within common knowledge.

Marginal note:Register

63. The Commissioner shall keep a register of plant breeders’ rights and, subject to the payment of any fee or charge required by or under this Act to be paid in the case of any entry in the register, the Commissioner shall enter in it

• (a) the prescribed category to which each new variety belongs;

• (b) the denomination of the variety, and any change thereof approved pursuant to subsection 14(5);

• (c) the full name and address of the breeder of that variety;

• (d) the name and address of the person whom the Commissioner is satisfied, in the manner provided by or under this Act, ought to be registered as the holder of the plant breeder’s rights respecting that variety;

• (e) the date of the grant of plant breeder’s rights respecting that variety;

• (f) the date of, and the reason for, any termination or invalidation of plant breeder’s rights;

• (g) if plant breeder’s rights are the subject of a compulsory licence under section 32, a statement to that effect;

• (h) the prescribed particulars of each application for the grant of plant breeder’s rights and of any abandonment or withdrawal of the application and, where a protective direction is granted, a statement to that effect; and

• (i) the prescribed particulars, subject to the provisions of this Act and the regulations, that are considered by the Commissioner to be appropriate for entry in the register.