Source: People’s Court Daily
On September 7, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) held a news press, publishing the typical cases on intellectual property rights protection in the seed industry. Mr. He Zhonglin, Deputy Chief Judge of the Intellectual Property Court of the SPC, Mr. An Ao, Deputy Chief Judge of the First Criminal Court of the SPC, and Mr. Zhu Li, Deputy Chief Judge of the Intellectual Property Court of the SPC attended to answer the questions.
The 10 typical cases included 7 civil cases, 1 administrative case, and 2 criminal cases, relating to corns, rice, wheat, etc., and the economic crop like pepper and pear tree.
The seed industry is a prerequisite for the food security. Mr. He Zhonglin said that the SPC has implemented multiple measures to fully perform its function of adjudication by making judicial interpretations, reforming adjudicative mechanism, establishing Expert Think Tank and improving multilateral coordination. The IP protection in seed industry will be reinforced to safeguard the innovations.
From 2016 to 2020, the People’s Courts at all levels heard and closed a total of 781 civil disputes over new plant varieties, increasing from 66 cases (2016) to 252 cases (2020), in which over 85% cases concerned the new pants varieties, including corn, wheat, rice, etc. And 70% right owners of the plants had won the cases.
The SPC had carried out 3 judicial interpretations on intellectual property rights protection of new plant varieties. Starting from March of 2021, the IP Court of the SPC has instructed special collegiate benches of handling the cases over the new plant varieties, to further direct the management of the related disputes. A total of 40 courts over the country were established to handle the cases related to the new plant varieties.
In the typical cases, the compensations for IP infringements in seed industry have obviously increased. For example, the right owner in the dispute over the infringement of “Zheng 58” hybrid corn was compensated with RMB 49,520,000, and the right was well protected.
The punitive damages shall be increased according to the law, and the infringement shall be strictly cracked down. The SPC will uphold the principle of protecting rights by using the systems of the transfer of burden of proof, the obstruction of proof, the order on presenting documents. The articles related to the assistance in infringement and the punitive damages shall be adopted to crack down the infringements.
In the typical cases, the penalty on crimes related to seed infringement was obviously increased. For example, a company processed and sold fake pepper seed, causing serious economic loss to the famers. The company was sentenced to 11 years and got a fine of RMB 1.23 million.
According to Mr. An, the counterfeit marks and the production and sale of counterfeit goods shall be strictly cracked down. The crimes of endangering seed industry shall be contained. The SPC will better perform its function of criminal justice to punish severely this kind of crimes, safeguard the R&D environment and protect the market order.
The conference also introduced the significance of some typical cases in the determinations of infringements and the regulations of applications of the new plant varieties.
The typical cases demonstrated the judicial orientation of cracking down the counterfeit marks of seeds, and delivered a signal of improving the IP protection in the seed industry. The SPC will further strengthen its work on IP protection in the seed industry, to safeguard the national food security and improve the innovations of the seed industry.
