UPOV Launches Redesigned Website
The redesigned UPOV website was launched on November 1, 2011. Some of the features of the redesigned website include the following:
- freely accessible database of plant varieties (PLUTO), formerly only available in the form of a CD-ROM on subscription (UPOV-ROM Plant Variety Database);
- multimedia presentation on UPOV;
- video on the use of plant variety protection by gentian farmers in the Ashiro region of Japan (“ the Ashiro Rindo story”);
- UPOV Collection of materials explaining the UPOV system;
- database of UPOV members’ laws (UPOV Lex).
At its forty-fifth ordinary session, held in Geneva on October 20, 2011, the Council agreed that the documents of the Administrative and Legal Committee (CAJ), Technical Committee (TC) and Technical Working Parties (TWPs), which were formerly only accessible to members and observers, would be made publicly accessible by removal of the password requirement.