The World Intellectual Property Day
World Intellectual Property Day
April 26 is World Intellectual Property Day, the theme of the 2024 World Intellectual Property Day campaign – Intellectual Property and the Sustainable Development Goals: Building a Shared Future through Innovation and Creativity. The theme is intended to explore how intellectual property can encourage and amplify innovative and creative solutions that are essential to building a common future for humanity.
The World Intellectual Property Day
The protection system of new plant varieties is an important intellectual property system to stimulate breeding innovation and protect breeding achievements, and strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry is one of the important links to promote the revitalization of the seed industry. The protection of the rights of new varieties of forest and grass plants will effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the rights holders of new plant varieties and promote breeding innovation, which is of great significance for promoting the high-quality development of forestry and promoting the construction of ecological civilization.
1
Understanding plant variety rights
New plant varieties refer to new plant varieties that have been artificially cultivated or developed from wild plants discovered, and have novelty, specificity, consistency, stability, and appropriate naming. Units and individuals that have completed breeding enjoy exclusive rights to the varieties they authorize, that is, they have the right to new plant varieties. The term of protection of plant variety rights is 20 years for lianas, forest trees, fruit trees and ornamental trees and 15 years for other plants from the date of grant.
In 2023, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration accepted 1,906 applications for new plant variety rights and authorized 915 applications, an increase of 40% over last year and a record high. As of 2023, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration has accepted a total of 10,742 applications for new varieties of forest and grass plants, and authorized 4,970 applications.
By the end of 2022, a total of 607 forest and grass plants in Beijing had been authorized by the state for new varieties, accounting for 18.12% of the national total. The species are mainly concentrated in the fields of ornamental plants, forest trees and fruit trees, with the majority of plants of Paeonia spp., Populus spp. and Rosa spp. The owners of variety rights are mainly scientific research institutes and institutions of higher learning. Among them, a large number of new varieties such as "Lihong" Acer truncatum, "Zixia" Cochin, "Zhangjiawan No. 1" Hokkaido boxwood have been approved and obtained the certificate of improved varieties, and have been widely used in landscaping.
2
Rights of rights holders of new plant variety rights
1. Production and sales rights. This is an exclusive right enjoyed by the owner of the variety right, and the owner of the variety right may prohibit any unit or individual from producing or selling the propagating material of the authorized variety for commercial purposes without the permission of the variety right holder, and shall not reuse the propagating material of the authorized variety with the propagating material of another variety for commercial purposes.
2. Right to Use. It is also an exclusive right of the breed right holder, and the propagating material of the authorized variety shall not be reused for commercial purposes with the propagating material of another variety without the permission of the variety right holder.
3. Right to mark. The owner of the variety right has the right to mark the variety right mark on the seed packaging of the authorized variety produced by itself, such as indicating the variety application right number, variety right number, and the name of the variety right holder.
4. License. According to the exclusive right owned by the variety right holder, the variety right holder can not only implement it himself, but also license other units and individuals to do so.
5. Right of Assignment. The right to apply for a new plant variety and the right to a variety may be transferred in accordance with the law. The right of transfer is the right of application and the right to dispose of the variety right that the owner of the variety right has in accordance with the law. After the transfer, its rights belong to the transferee.
6. Waiver. The owner of the variety right or the owner of the variety right may withdraw the variety application or give up the variety right in various ways according to the needs after applying for the variety right or being granted the variety right.
7. Right to Request Protection. When the variety right is infringed, the variety right holder has the right to request the relevant administrative authority to deal with it, or directly file a lawsuit with the people's court.
3
What constitutes infringement of plant variety rights
1. Production, propagation or sale of propagating material of the authorized variety or reuse of the propagating material of the authorized variety for commercial purposes in the production of propagating material of another variety without the permission of the owner of the right to a new plant variety.
2. Where propagating materials of authorized varieties are planted, infringement may be determined based on production and propagation based on the specific circumstances of the case.
3. Where an expression of intent is made to sell the propagating materials of the authorized varieties by means such as advertising or exhibition, infringement may be determined by the act of sale.
4. Where one knows or should know that others have committed acts of infringing on variety rights, but still provides services such as acquisition, storage, transportation, processing for the purpose of propagation, or provides relevant supporting materials, it constitutes assisting others in committing infringement as provided for in article 1169 of the Civil Code.
4
What are the ways for the rights holders of new plant varieties to protect their rights?
(1) Administrative protection
The Seed Law stipulates that the competent departments of agriculture and forestry of the people's governments at or above the county level may, on the basis of the principle of the voluntary nature of the parties, mediate the compensation for damages caused by the infringement of the rights to new plant varieties.
The Regulations on the Protection of New Plant Varieties stipulate that if the propagating material of an authorized variety is produced or sold for commercial purposes without the permission of the variety right holder, the variety right holder or interested party may request the agricultural and forestry administrative departments of the people's governments at or above the provincial level to deal with it in accordance with their respective powers.
(2) Judicial protection
The Seed Law stipulates that if the parties fail to perform the agreement or fail to reach an agreement through mediation, the owner or interested party of the right to a new plant variety may file a lawsuit with the people's court in accordance with the law.
The Regulations on the Protection of New Plant Varieties stipulate that if the propagating material of an authorized variety is produced or sold for commercial purposes without the permission of the variety right holder, the variety right holder or interested party may also file a lawsuit directly with the people's court.
Crack down on infringement of rights to new plant varieties
Coordinate with departments to actively promote the coordination of administrative law enforcement protection and judicial protection, and improve the overall protection efficiency. Recently, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscaping and Landscaping and the Beijing Intellectual Property Court held a symposium on the collaborative protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry, with a view to giving full play to their respective professional advantages through the close cooperation and organic connection between administrative law enforcement and judicial protection, and further promoting more in-depth coordinated development in joint research, business exchanges, talent exchange, information sharing, etc., so as to strengthen the collaborative protection of the rights of new varieties of forestry plants and achieve complementary advantages.