The competent authorities in each of the Andean Community Member Countries recognize and guarantee that right by issuing a so-called Obtentor's Certificate, provided for in the Cartagena Agreement Commission's Decision 345 on the Common Regime for the Protection of the Rights of Obtentors of Plant Varieties.

In order to have access to it, plant varieties must have certain basic characteristics:

• Be new; in other words, the variety cannot have been exploited commercially.

• Be different; it must be clearly distinguishable from any other known variety at the time the application is submitted.

• Be homogeneous; its essential characteristics must be sufficiently uniform.

• Be stable; its essential characteristics must remain unchanged from generation to generation and at the end of each particular reproduction, multiplication, or propagation cycle.

• Adopt an appropriate generic name.

In regard to the duration of the protection, the Decision establishes that the certificate conferring the right to exclusive marketing of the plant variety will last for from 20 to 25 years in the case of grapevines, forest trees, and fruit trees, including their root stocks. The protection for all other species will have a duration of from 15 to 20 years after their date of issue, as determined by the national authority.