According to Article 2(1)(4) of the Plant Variety Protection Act, a protection can be granted if the variety is new, i.e. propagating or harvested material of the variety has not been sold or offered for public sale or otherwise disposed of, by or with the consent of the breeder, for purposes of commercial utilization of the variety:
- in Iceland, earlier than one year before the above-mentioned date; or
- in another country, earlier than four years or, in the case of trees or of vines, earlier than six years before the above-mentioned date.
According to Article 2(2), a variety is considered to be known if it has been sold or offered for public sale, is registered in an official variety list or is generally known through other means.