
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 2, 2001]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 2, 2001 and January 28, 2002]
[CITE: 7USC2568]

 
                          TITLE 7--AGRICULTURE
 
                  CHAPTER 57--PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION
 
           SUBCHAPTER III--PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION AND RIGHTS
 
Part L--Remedies for Infringement of Plant Variety Protection, and Other 
                                 Actions
 
Sec. 2568. False marking; cease and desist orders

    (a) Each of the following acts, if performed in connection with the 
sale, offering for sale, or advertising of sexually reproducible plant 
material or tubers or parts of tubers, is prohibited, and the Secretary 
may, if the Secretary determines after an opportunity for hearing that 
the act is being so performed, issue an order to cease and desist, said 
order being binding unless appealed under section 2461 of this title:
        (1) Use of the words ``U.S. Protected Variety'' or any word or 
    number importing that the material is a variety protected under 
    certificate, when it is not.
        (2) Use of any wording importing that the material is a variety 
    for which an application for plant variety protection is pending, 
    when it is not.
        (3) Use of either the phrase ``Unauthorized Propagation 
    Prohibited'' or ``Unauthorized Seed Multiplication Prohibited'' or 
    similar phrase without reasonable basis. Any reasonable basis 
    expires one year after the first sale of the variety except as 
    justified thereafter by a pending application or a certificate still 
    in force.
        (4) Failure to use the name of a variety for which a certificate 
    of protection has been issued under this chapter, even after the 
    expiration of the certificate, except that lawn, turf, or forage 
    grass seed, or alfalfa or clover seed may be sold without a variety 
    name unless use of the name of a variety for which a certificate of 
    protection has been issued under this chapter is required under 
    State law.

    (b) Anyone convicted of violating a binding cease and desist order, 
or of performing any act prohibited in subsection (a) of this section 
for the purpose of deceiving the public, shall be fined not more than 
$10,000 and not less than $500.
    (c) Anyone whose business is damaged or is likely to be damaged by 
an act prohibited in subsection (a) of this section, or is subjected to 
competition in connection with which such act is performed, may have 
remedy by civil action.

(Pub. L. 91-577, title III, Sec. 128, Dec. 24, 1970, 84 Stat. 1557; Pub. 
L. 96-574, Sec. 19(c), Dec. 22, 1980, 94 Stat. 3352; Pub. L. 103-349, 
Secs. 12, 13(v), Oct. 6, 1994, 108 Stat. 3142, 3144.)


                               Amendments

    1994--Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 103-349 inserted ``or tubers or parts of 
tubers'' after ``plant material'' and substituted ``if the Secretary 
determines'' for ``if he determines'' in introductory provisions, and 
added par. (4).
    1980--Subsec. (a)(3). Pub. L. 96-574 substituted provisions 
respecting prohibitions for use of phrases ``Unauthorized Propagation 
Prohibited'' and ``Unauthorized Seed Multiplication Prohibited'' for 
provisions respecting prohibitions for use of phrase ``propagation 
prohibited''.


                    Effective Date of 1994 Amendment

    Amendment by Pub. L. 103-349 effective 180 days after Oct. 6, 1994, 
see section 15 of Pub. L. 103-349, set out as a note under section 2401 
of this title.

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in section 2461 of this title.
