Identification of infringement of new plant varieties

To realize agricultural modernization, seeds are the foundation. As the "chip" of agriculture, seed research and development are very important. It took breeders many years and seed companies spent millions or even tens of millions of investments to develop a new variety. New plant variety infringement means that infringers use various means to implement infringement in all aspects in order to obtain illegal benefits and evade legal sanctions.

The "Regulations on the Naming of Agricultural Plant Varieties" clearly stipulates that only one Chinese name can be used for an agricultural plant variety. The same plant variety can only use the same name when applying for new variety protection, variety approval, variety registration, promotion, and sales. Therefore, in certain circumstances, it can be presumed that the plant materials referred to by the same plant variety name are the same. Therefore, it can be said that by identifying whether the names are the same, we can infer the existence of infringement. If the names are different, technical identification is required to determine that the plant materials of the two varieties are the same. At present, it is mostly necessary to find out the facts of the case through identification and other methods.

As an independent third-party inspection and testing organization under Guoke Holdings, Zhongke Testing has intellectual property appraisal qualifications and can provide infringement appraisal services for new plant varieties.

In the identification of infringement of new plant varieties, strict infringement identification conditions should be followed to ensure the accuracy and fairness of the identification results. The specific conditions for determining infringement are as follows:

1. The right holder has real and effective variety rights: a new plant variety is protected by law only during its validity period. If a variety right has not been granted, has expired, or has been declared invalid, the exploitation of the variety by others is not prohibited by law.

2. The perpetrator exercised the act of exploiting the variety right without the permission of the variety right holder: the form of permission here includes both written permission, oral permission and other express permissions, as well as implied permissions. Any unauthorized exploitation of variety rights, such as the production, propagation, sale or reuse of propagating material of an authorized variety, may constitute infringement.

3. The perpetrator has fault: fault can be intentional or negligent. Intentional infringement refers to knowingly committing the crime, while negligent tort means that the perpetrator should have known that his behavior may constitute an infringement, but committed it due to negligence or ignorance.

In addition, it should be noted that certain specific behaviors, such as the use of an authorized variety for scientific research and experimental purposes, farmers’ self-propagation of authorized varieties for their own use, etc., although causing losses to the variety rights holder, are not considered infringements according to law.

New plant variety infringement identification services are widely used in agriculture, horticulture, forestry and other fields. When the rights and interests of a new plant variety are infringed upon, the rights holder may apply for an infringement identification of the new plant variety to safeguard their rights.

1 and new plant variety infringement identification reports can be used as an important basis for legal proceedings and provide strong support for rights holders to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.

2, new plant variety infringement identification reports can also be used for internal infringement risk assessment and decision-making support, helping companies formulate targeted intellectual property protection strategies.

3, new plant variety infringement identification reports can also be used for industry supervision and the formulation of public policies to promote the standardization and legalization of new plant variety protection work.

In the typical case of judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry issued by the People's Court, the infringement identification of new plant varieties provides strong support for plant variety rights protection.

[Basic case facts]

Jinyuan Seed Company is the holder of the variety rights of the new corn plant variety "Weike 609". A law enforcement inspection by the Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau of Pingdu City, Shandong Province found that the corn seeds sold by Xinfeng Seed Industry Company were not labeled "Yuhe 868" and were fake seeds, so they imposed administrative penalties on Xinfeng Company.

Subsequently, Jinyuan Seed Company sued, claiming that the "Yuhe 868" sold by Xinfeng Seed Company was actually "Weike 609" and Defa Seed Company was the production, processing and supply unit of "Yuhe 868". It requested an order for the two companies to stop infringement and compensate for losses.

[Judgment Result]

Zhongke Testing has intellectual property appraisal qualifications and is a professional new plant variety infringement appraisal agency. Relying on a strong technical team and advanced appraisal equipment, it is committed to providing customers with accurate and efficient new plant variety infringement appraisal services.

According to the entrustment of the client, our company can organize appraisers to investigate, analyze and issue an intellectual property appraisal report on whether the new plant varieties involved in the infringement case have novelty, specificity, consistency and stability and are appropriately named.

We have rich experience and deep professional knowledge, and can accurately judge the infringement of new plant varieties and provide strong support for customers to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.