Category Archives: Agricultural Law

Brazilian Court Annuls Approval to Commercialize Transgenic Corn

by Shawn Sullivan Posted on March 27, 2014

A federal appellate court in Porto Alegre, Brazil nullified a government commission’s approval for commercial release of the transgenic corn (maize) product known as LibertyLink. See Processo 5000629-66.2012.404.7000 (Tribunal Regional Federal da 4ª Região 13 Mar. 2014). APPROVAL OF RELEASE LEADS … Continue reading →

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Ecuadorian IP Institute Registers Traditional Knowledge of Indigenous Community

by Shawn Sullivan Posted on March 21, 2014

Yesterday, at a conference at its offices in Guayaquil, the Ecuadorian Intellectual Property Institute (IEPI) presented its 2013 annual report. IEPI, 2013 Informe de Rendición de Cuentas. As noted in an article published in the newspaper El Comercio, IEPI has been … Continue reading →

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Indian IP Board Upholds Rejection of Plant Stress Tolerance Patent

by Shawn Sullivan Posted on August 21, 2013

On July 5, 2013, the Indian Intellectual Property Appellate Board affirmed a decision of the national patent office to deny Monsanto Company’s application for a patent covering “a method of producing a transgenic plant, with increasing heat tolerance, salt tolerance or … Continue reading →

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Spanish Plant Variety Rights Litigation Continues

by Shawn Sullivan Posted on June 5, 2013

According to news reports, an appellate court in Granada, Spain recently affirmed a lower tribunal’s denial of a request by Swiss multinational Syngenta for provisional measures against a company it claimed was infringing Syngenta’s European Community plant variety rights. Syngenta con … Continue reading →

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Plant Variety Rights Case: Court Orders Claimant to Return Seized Items

by Shawn Sullivan Posted on May 2, 2013

In an opinion issued April 25, 2013, a Dutch court in the city of Roermond found no basis for plant variety rights infringement claims brought by the Anti-Infringement Bureau for Intellectual Property Rights on Plant Material (AIB), a Brussels-based association … Continue reading →

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Plant Variety Rights: EU Officials Seize Unlicensed Strawberries

by Shawn Sullivan Posted on March 12, 2013

A fruit industry publication reports that in the last growing season, European Union officials invoked EU customs laws to impound the importation from Egypt of mass quantities of strawberries that infringed the plant variety rights of the University of Florida. … Continue reading →

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Belgian Court Finds Plant Variety Rights Infringement

by Shawn Sullivan Posted on January 3, 2013

On December 3, 2012, a court in the city of Ghent, Belgium ruled that bromeliad ornamental plant varieties marketed under the names “Starlight” and “Catherine” were indistinguishable from a protected variety known as “Calypso,” and thus the marketing and sale … Continue reading →

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Chilean Court Awards US$4.4 Million for Plant Variety Rights Infringement

by Shawn Sullivan Posted on December 14, 2012

On November 14, 2012, a trial court in Talagante, a province in the Santiago Metropolitan Region in central Chile, ordered two agricultural companies to pay nearly US$4.4 million for infringing the plant variety rights of José Domingo Godoy Huidobro, the breeder … Continue reading →

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Colombian Court Strikes Down Law Approving 1991 Plant Variety Protection Convention

by Shawn Sullivan Posted on December 10, 2012

On December 5, 2012, Colombia’s Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional a 2012 law by which the National Congress approved the country’s accession to the 1991 Act of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV Convention). Sentencia … Continue reading →

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Italian Court Awards Damages for Plant Breeders’ Rights Infringement

by Shawn Sullivan Posted on December 6, 2012

Netherlands seed company Rijk Zwaan announced this week that a court in Milan, Italy has ordered the Italian company Agriseeds to pay Rijk Zwaan €205,701 in damages for unlawfully reproducing lettuce plants of a variety over which the Dutch company … Continue reading →

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