12 February 2008

EUROPEAN Customs authorities confiscated ten thousands of cut-roses
in a co-ordinated action before Valentines Day

Valentines Day means one of the peaks in the cut-flower business. In order to meet the desires of the consumers, millions of cut-flowers are imported from all parts of the world into the European Community during the Valentines week.

In this period also the efforts of breeders against the infringement of their Intellectual Property Rights reached its first peak. On application of 15 leading cut-rose breeding companies from all over the world, Customs authorities in six member countries of the European Community determined whether imported cut-roses infringed the intellectual property rights of these breeders.

Goal of the breeders was to monitor the imports of cut-roses from various target countries and to stop imports of illegal cut-roses in one of the peak seasons of the vear in order to give a strong message both to infringers but also to their licensees and traders, exporters and importers of cut-roses that infringement of Plant Breeders' Rights will not be tolerated anymore and that those not following the rules are chased.

From 4 to 11 February, Customs officers in the airports of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid, London and Lisbon checked, in co-operation with experts of the breeders, several thousand boxes with cut-roses from several target countries. Against the background of the millions of flowers which are imported to the European Community in this period of the year, it was a great logistic challenge for the Customs authorities to do on the one hand proper checks and on the other hand to avoid serious disturbances of the logistics of legal imports. In this regard, the Customs officers were especially challenged by the fact that often flowers coming from legal and illegal sources were mixed in one shipment and that it was time-consuming to separate them. However, the Customs authorities were able to minimize the negative side-effects of this action. e.g. as far as delays in the logistics of the legal flowers were concerned.

The Valentines action turned out to be a full success. During the 8 days of the action, the Customs authorities suspended the free release of dozens of shipments. After detailed checks by the breeders, some 20 shipments have been confiscated. All in all ten thousands of cut-roses from unauthorised sources have been found. But even more important than these figures is the fact that through this action the intellectual property protection of breeders raised significant awareness in the whole flower business and that the breeders have been able to show that they have effective means at hand to enforce their intellectual property rights.

The Customs action was based on the European Plant Variety Right law (1), which provides the breeders with a patent-like protection for their plant varieties, in combination with the European Anti-Piracy Regulation (2).
It was supported by the European Commission (DG TAXUD and DG SANCO) and the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO), which grants the Plant Variety Right titles to breeders. The action was co-ordinated by CIOPORA, the International Association of Breeders of Asexually Reproduced Ornamental and Fruit Varieties, which represents its members in Intellectual Property matters on international and national level.
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(1) Council Regulation (EC) No. 2100/94 of 27 July 1994 on Community Plant Variety Rights
(2) Council Regulation (EC) No. 1383/2003 of 22 July 2003 concerning Customs action against goods suspected of infringing certain intellectual property rights and the measures to be taken against goods found to have infringed such rights

See also articles in:

 Il Floricultore April 2008         FloraCulture International March 2008

  Plantflor                Réussir Fruits et Légumes