New Zealand Food Company Intellectual Property Protection Case
New Zealand Food Company Intellectual Property Protection Case
A well-known New Zealand apple company discovered that a modern agricultural company in Gansu, China, was propagating its "Golden Apple" variety seedlings without permission and selling over 500 tons of infringing fruit annually. Caichen Fuwo's Chinese legal services team first established a complete chain of evidence regarding the cultivation of infringing seedlings and the sale of fruit through notarization, verifying that the variety had been granted a new plant variety right in China. During the lawsuit, they addressed the defendant's claim that "planting solely for fruit harvesting does not constitute infringement," emphasizing the specific characteristics of asexually propagated crops and arguing for the legal protection of the extended interests of propagating materials. Ultimately, the Supreme People's Court upheld the original judgment in its second instance, ordering the infringer to cease infringement and awarding double punitive damages, totaling 3.3 million yuan. At the same time, the court innovatively employed a sterilization method involving the removal of the infringing scion and grafting of a hybrid variety, balancing the protection of rights and interests with the rational use of agricultural resources.