On September 7, the Vice President of the Supreme Court Intellectual Property Court Xi Zhonglin pointed out at the press conference that the People's Court will further increase judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry. Intensify the application of punitive damages in accordance with the law, strike hard against deck infringements, and severely sentence punitive damages within the legal range. At the same time, severely deter illegal and criminal acts that endanger the safety of the seed industry, and maintain a high-pressure posture and crackdown on crimes of counterfeiting and selling agricultural materials.
Seeds are the "chips" of agriculture and the "lifeblood" of national food security. On the 7th, the Supreme Law held a press conference to release the first batch of typical cases of judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry of the People's Court, and introduced the basic situation of the judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry of the People's Court and the next work plan.
Yun Zhonglin introduced that at present, my country has formed a relatively complete seed industry intellectual property legal protection system with the Seed Law, Patent Law, and New Plant Variety Protection Regulations as the main body and supplemented by relevant judicial interpretations. Protect the rights of new plant varieties through special legislation such as the Seed Law and the Regulations on the Protection of New Plant Varieties; protect the production methods, related functional genes, encoded proteins and vectors of plant varieties through the Patent Law; protect the secrets of breeding technology and business secrets through the Anti-Unfair Competition Law ;Protect the source of seeds and commercial reputation through trademarks and geographical indications in the Trademark Law; sanction counterfeit and inferior seeds through the crimes of producing and selling counterfeit seeds, selling counterfeit products, illegal business operations, and infringement of registered trademarks as stipulated in my country's Criminal Law Crime of counterfeit agricultural production and sale. In recent years, the people's courts have taken multiple measures to continuously increase the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry, and strive to provide strong judicial guarantees for the independent innovation of the seed industry.
Regarding the next step of the work plan, Chen Zhonglin stated that the People’s Court will take the opportunity of the implementation of judicial interpretations of new plant varieties and focus on severe sanctions against deck infringements, continuously improve the level of judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry, and promote the seed industry. High-quality development, service and guarantee to realize the self-reliance and self-reliance of the seed industry, and the independent and controllable seed source.
——Further increase the judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry. Instruct the courts at all levels to correctly grasp and accurately understand the new judicial interpretations to expand the scope of protection, enhance protection, reduce the difficulty of rights protection, and promote the goal orientation of breeding innovation, and effectively implement the spirit and principles of judicial interpretations. Adhere to the judicial philosophy that is conducive to the protection of rights, make good use of systems such as the transfer of the burden of proof, obstruction of proof, and the submission of orders in documents, and make good use of key provisions such as assistance to infringement and punitive damages, so that infringers have nowhere to hide and profit. Intensify the application of punitive damages in accordance with the law, strike hard against deck infringements, and severely sentence punitive damages within the legal range. Severely deter illegal and criminal acts that endanger the safety of the seed industry, make good use of the current criminal legal system, maintain a high-pressure posture and crackdown on the crimes of counterfeiting and selling agricultural materials, and create a legal environment that dares not to infringe and does not want to infringe, and at the same time Relevant departments have conducted in-depth studies to further increase the legal liability for serious violations of the rights of new plant varieties, such as infringements of branding.
——Further guide the local courts to play a good role and characteristic advantages. Strengthen research on frontier issues, increase guidance to the next, and promote the improvement of germplasm resource protection, utilization, and breeding innovation capabilities. Guide local courts to actively explore protection models that conform to local characteristics based on the characteristics of the local seed industry's intellectual property work. Guide the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court and the Xi'an Intellectual Property Court to actively perform their functions, provide all-round judicial protection and services for the construction of "Southern Silicon Valley" and "Yangling Agricultural High-tech Industry Demonstration Zone", and build an international high-level seed industry New heights of intellectual property protection. Guide the national seed breeding bases, regional fine seed breeding bases, breeding public service platforms and the courts where the national seed bank is located in Hainan, Sichuan, Gansu, Heilongjiang, etc., actively research and solve new problems in local judicial protection, and promote the improvement of seed industry innovation The level of intellectual property protection of the base. Guide Henan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Anhui, Gansu and other areas with more developed seed industries and more seed industry intellectual property cases, strengthen strategic layout and forward-looking thinking, carefully build professional trial teams with corresponding capabilities and scales, and implement detailed The market environment will be optimized in a practical manner. Guide the local courts of various industries and industrial parks to explore and innovate the intellectual property protection model of the seed industry in a targeted manner, and promote the development of the entire industry chain of the seed industry through judicial protection.
——Further deepen the cooperation between justice and administration in seed industry protection. In accordance with the spirit of the cooperation memorandum between the Supreme People’s Court and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, deepen business exchanges on intellectual property protection in the seed industry, strengthen information communication and sharing, strengthen coordination of work measures, and promote high-quality and effective cooperation. Guide local courts at all levels and local agricultural administrative departments to establish a long-term mechanism for exchanges and cooperation, establish and improve the entire chain of coordination mechanisms for seed-related administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, and further promote the effective connection and complementarity of administrative protection and judicial protection, and promote the comprehensive formation of a strict law The powerful force of protection. Instruct the courts at all levels across the country to take effective simultaneous measures to provide strong support for the comprehensive implementation of the seed industry revitalization action.
——Further create a legal environment that strengthens the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry. Strengthen the promotion of the rule of law, relying on thematic activities such as the annual intellectual property publicity week, and actively promote the intellectual property protection of the seed industry and optimize the seed industry through the form of case statements, press conferences, and regular and irregular releases of typical cases of judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry. Independently innovate the legal environment and other work to create a good atmosphere in the whole society. The 10 typical cases released today are the first batch, and the second and third batches will be released in the future.