In October 2024, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released a batch of judicial protection cases related to intellectual property rights (IPR) in the seed industry, aiming to strengthen IP Protection in the seed sector and guide breed right holders to effectively protect their rights.
This batch consists of five cases, all adjudicated by the SPC’s Intellectual Property Court, involving disputes over infringement of new plant variety rights and technical secrets of breeding materials.
For instance, in the “LIHE 228” (利合228) corn plant variety infringement case, the court held that the fact that the criminal defendant engaged in unauthorized seed sales, as determined by a prior effective criminal judgment, could be used as a fact in the civil infringement case, thus freeing the rights holder from additional proof. Furthermore, based on prior effective civil judgments and announcements from the Heilongjiang Crop Variety Approval Committee, it can be determined that the allegedly infringing variety “HAYU 189” (哈育189) was substantially the same as the authorized variety “LIHE 228”. This decision effectively lowered the rights holder’s burden in rights protection, achieving coordinated protection across criminal, administrative, and civil aspects for plant variety rights.
Contributors: CJO Staff Contributors Team
