Breeders are facing difficulties when enforcing their Community and national plant variety rights. An important reason for this phenomenon is the limited knowledge of the applicable legislation amongst breeders, lawyers, prosecutors and judges. For this reason, the Community Plant Variety Office, in close co-operation with the breeders’ organizations and the European Commission, decided to organize a seminar on enforcement of plant variety rights. It is envisaged that as a follow up, two more seminars will be organized in Spain and Poland in 2006.

This seminar, which took place in Brussels, aimed at sharing information and experience relating to the enforcement of plant variety rights in order to raise the awareness of the applicable legislation. An attempt was also made to evaluate if there was room for improvements as regards the legislation in force and in preparation, and if so, the appropriate way to ensure that changes are made.

The legislation discussed during the seminar is found below :

Enforcement Directive 2004/48
Statement on IP Rights comprised by Directive 2004/48
Customs Actions Regulation 2003/1383
Implementing rules to the Customs Regulation : Regulation 1891/2004
European Commission Press release : Proposal for Criminal Sanctions
The provisions in the Basic Regulation on Enforcement

Speeches and presentations are now available below by clicking on the icons in the right column of the Agenda.

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AGENDA :

Session I: Procedural remedies

CHAIRMEN:

Dr. P.Lange, (ESA)

Mr. J.Gennatas, (European Commission) - Part II

Mr. B.Kiewiet, (CPVO) - Part II

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Objectives of this session :

This session was introduced by presenting the legal framework of the Community system; with the CPVO responsible for the registration of titles and national courts competent to settle infringement disputes. The session continued concentrating on procedural remedies available, such as securing evidence and information, access to premises of infringers and other interim measures that a court may order before the merits of the case is tried. Examples of different rules in different Member States were presented followed by studies of cases where courts have tried requests on such procedural remedies.

SESSION I : PROCEDURAL REMEDIES
Hours
9.30-9.40	INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME by Mr. B.Kiewiet, President, CPVO
9.40-9.50	Chairman's introduction Mr.P.Lange, Chairman of the ESA Committee on Intellectual Property Rights
	PART I : THE COMMUNITY SYSTEM
9.50-10.20	Provisions on enforcement in Council regulation (EC) n°2100/94 Mr. M.Ekvad , Legal Advisor, CPVO
	PART II : PROCEDURAL REMEDIES
10.20-10.40	Procedural rules applicable in some Member States of the EU Mrs. M.Suelmann, Company lawyer, Rijk Zwaan Zaadteelt en Zaadhandel B.V.
10.40-11.00	COFFEE BREAK
11.00-11.20	Case study from Germany Mr. G.Würtenberger, Wuesthoff & Wuesthoff Patent- und Rechtsandwälte
11.20-11.40	Case study from the Netherlands Mr. A.H.J.Wolf, Barents & Krans Advocaten Notarissen
11.40-12.30	PANEL DEBATE
12.30-14.00	LUNCH

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Objectives of this session :

This session started with a general introduction to the technical specifics that characterizes the pvr system followed by a more specific study of the role that DNA-techniques can play in court proceedings. We then shared experiences made in court cases as regards the proof of (non)-distinctness and the sanctions ordered by courts, such as injunctions and damages. The second part of the session was devoted to two work-shops. One workshop relating to the collection of royalties for farm saved seed, where a comparison study was made of the systems in place in three of the Member States of the EU. The other workshop focused on problems for ornamental breeders in enforcing their plant variety rights.

SESSION II
Hours	PART I : PROVING DISTINCTNESS AND SANCTIONS
14.00-14.10	Chairman's introduction Mr. J.Elena, Vice-President, CPVO
14.10-15.30	PART I : PROVING (NON)-DISTINCTNESS AND AVAILABLE SANCTIONS
14.10-14.30	Technical aspects to take into account when enforcing plant variety rights Mr. D.Theobald, Head of Technical Unit, CPVO
14.30-14.50	DNA techniques to prove (non)-distinctness Mr. A.Villaroel, General Manager, Geslive
14.50-15.10	Case study from Germany Mr. A.Keukenschrijver, Judge at Bundesgerichtshof (Supreme Court in Germany)
15.10-15.30	Case study from the United Kingdom Mr. J.Smith, Partner, Herbert Smith LLP, London (Agribio Practice)
15.30-15.50	COFFEE BREAK

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4 october 2005 -- afternoon : SESSION II                                                

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Objectives of this session :

2004 was an important year as regards legal developments in the area of enforcing intellectual property rights. The Regulation on customs actions entered into force and the Directive on enforcement of intellectual property rights was adopted. A Representative from the Commission gave us information on these developments in general and the impact on plant variety rights in specific. This was followed by the views of a speaker involved in implementing the directive in national law in one of the Member States. Representatives of the European breeders’ organizations then summarized their views on areas in which the system on enforcing plant varieties is satisfactory and where there is room for improvement.

SESSION III : DEVELOPMENTS AND ENFORCEMENT OF PLANT VARIETY RIGHTS
Hours
9.30-9.40	Chairman's introduction Mr. R.Jördens, Vice-Secretary General, UPOV
9.40-10.00	Regulation (EC) N°1383/2003 on customs actions Mrs. S.Weber, Studio Legale
10.00-10.20	Practical experiences of customs actions Mr. N.Novaro, NIRP International
10.20-10.40	Directive 2004/48 on enforcement Mr. E.Nooteboom, European Commission DG MARKT
10.40-11.00	Implementing directive 2004/48 on enforcement in national law Mr. M.Ficsor, Vice-President, Hungarian Patent Office
11.00-11.20	COFFEE BREAK
11.20-11.40	Does the enforcement system meet the needs of the breeders ? Mr. C.Grand, RAGT, representing ESA
11.40-12.00	Does the enforcement system meet the needs of the breeders ? Mr. E.Krieger, Executive Secretary of CIOPORA
12.00-12.45	PANEL DEBATE
12.45-13.00	CONCLUSIONS by Mr. B.Kiewiet, President