Hamburg, 25/05/2011 – The CPVO Seminar on the enforcement of plant variety rights took place in Hamburg serving as a discussion platform for breeders, seed producers, growers, lawyers and plant trade representatives mainly from the European Union.

The event began with the Session I dedicated to the applicable national and community legislation on PVR as well as the issues of its enforcement. The speakers shared their experiences addressing a number of particular cases of PVR infringement. The Past-President of CIOPORA and current board member Lars Henriksen and CIOPORA lawyer-member Mrs. Helle Jørgsholm held a joint presentation on visual and genetic identification of plant material. They emphasized the existence of a number of sector-specific obstacles for legal actions against the infringers, such as the lack of specialized courts and qualified judges, lengthy and cost-consuming investigation and trials, as well as the difficulties with collection and securing of evidences.

The afternoon workshops were sector-oriented dealing with the PVR enforcement issues in the agricultural and the ornamentals & fruits sectors respectively.

The Secretary General of CIOPORA Dr. Edgar Krieger opened the session with a presentation about the breeders’ perspective on PVR enforcement. He addressed the scope of breeders’ rights pointing out the lack of a clear-cut definition of the term “variety constituents”, the limited protection of harvested material, and the complete lack of protection of processed material under the CPVR Regulation 2100/94. Inter alia Dr. Krieger demonstrated that unless the processed material is included into the scope of breeders’ rights, no control can be exercised over imported processed goods produced from illegal plant material.

Furthermore, Dr. Krieger stressed that according to rulings of the German Supreme Court each part of the production and trade-chain can be held liable for PBR infringements. Growers must run the compliance check and must make sure that their goods do not infringe IP rights. The trade has to check whether such compliance check has been undertaken at least once, particularly if products from abroad are for sale. Intermediaries, such as auctions, have to undertake all technically possible and reasonable steps to prevent infringements.

With an example of apple production, Dr. Krieger demonstrated that the portions of royalties in the farmers’ income are as low as 0.33 – 1.5 %, and therefore do not present a major burden for the horticultural sector even in the developing countries.

List of attendance (CIOPORA members only):

Mr. Andrea Mansuino, President of CIOPORA

Secretary General Dr. Edgar Krieger

The Board Members: Mr. Lars Henriksen, Mr. Maarten Leune

The members / representatives of member companies (in alphabetical order):

Mr. Mehdi Bathaeian, Mrs. Nellie Hoek, Mrs. Helle Jørgsholm, Mr. Adi Karniel, Mr. Rafi Karniel, Mr. Norman Kordes, Mr. Thomas Leidereiter, Mr. Thomas Löffler, Mr. Reiner Peters, Mr. Martin Röhrig, Mrs. Ingrid Slangen, Mrs. Friederike von Rundstedt, Mrs. Ingrid Wickel