---
kind: "section"
citation: "7 U.S.C. § 2568"
title: "7"
title_heading: "Agriculture"
number: "2568"
heading: "False marking; cease and desist orders"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/7/2568"
units:
  - "Chapter 57 — Plant Variety Protection"
  - "Subchapter III — Plant Variety Protection and Rights"
  - "Part L — Remedies for Infringement of Plant Variety Protection, and Other Actions"
---

# §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 or asexually reproducible plant material or tubers or parts of tubers, is prohibited, and the [Secretary](/usc/7/499a.md?p=b-2) may, if the [Secretary](/usc/7/499a.md?p=b-2) 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](/usc/7/2461.md):
  - (1) Use of the words “U.S. Protected [Variety](/usc/7/2401.md?p=a-10)” or any word or number importing that the material is a [variety](/usc/7/2401.md?p=a-10) protected under certificate, when it is not.
  - (2) Use of any wording importing that the material is a [variety](/usc/7/2401.md?p=a-10) for which an application for plant [variety](/usc/7/2401.md?p=a-10) protection is pending, when it is not.
  - (3) Use of either the phrase “Unauthorized Propagation Prohibited” or “Unauthorized [Seed](/usc/7/2401.md?p=a-6) Multiplication Prohibited” or similar phrase without reasonable basis. Any reasonable basis expires one year after the first sale of the [variety](/usc/7/2401.md?p=a-10) except as justified thereafter by a pending application or a certificate still in force.
  - (4) Failure to use the name of a [variety](/usc/7/2401.md?p=a-10) 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](/usc/7/2401.md?p=a-6), or alfalfa or clover [seed](/usc/7/2401.md?p=a-6) may be sold without a [variety](/usc/7/2401.md?p=a-10) name unless use of the name of a [variety](/usc/7/2401.md?p=a-10) for which a certificate of protection has been issued under this chapter is required under [State](/usc/7/198.md?p=5) law.
- (b) Anyone convicted of violating a binding cease and desist order, or of performing any act prohibited in [subsection (a)](#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)](#a) of this section, or is subjected to competition in connection with which such act is performed, may have remedy by civil action.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 91–577, title III, § 128, Dec. 24, 1970, 84 Stat. 1557; Pub. L. 96–574, § 19(c), Dec. 22, 1980, 94 Stat. 3352; Pub. L. 103–349, §§ 12, 13(v), Oct. 6, 1994, 108 Stat. 3142, 3144; Pub. L. 115–334, title X, § 10108(d), Dec. 20, 2018, 132 Stat. 4906.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2018—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 115–334 inserted “or asexually” after “sexually” in introductory provisions.

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”.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### 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.