Plant Variety Rights Legislation in the Czech Republic

1. The National Legislation in the Field of Plant Variety Rights EnforcementCENTRAL INSTITUTE FOR SUPERVISING AND TESTING IN AGRICULTURE

2. Plant Variety Rights Legislation in the Czech Republic Act No 408/2000 Coll. on the protection of plant variety rights (hereinafter Act No 408/2000 Coll.) and the amendment to Act No 92/1996 Coll., on plant varieties, seed and planting material of cultivated plants, as last amended (hereinafter Act No 92/1996 Coll.). This Act regulates: • the rights and obligations with respect to new plant varieties, • the powers and role of state administration authorities in the field of plant variety rights to varieties, • the proceedings for the grant of plant variety rights, • the control of variety maintenance, • the imposition of sanctions for infringement of obligations and violation of plant variety rights of EC.

3. The authorities with the competency and responsibility to the area of plant variety rights in the frame of the Czech Republic are: • Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture (hereinafter CISTA) • Ministry of Agriculture

4. Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture • It is a specialised body of the state administration established by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic • It is an organisational part of the state system • It is an administrative agency • Act No 147/2002 Coll., on CISTA, as amended Place of Headquarters: • Hroznová 2, 656 06 Brno • Česká republika • Tel.: (+420) 543 548 111 • Fax: (+420) 543 211 148 • e-mail: ukzuz@ukzuz.cz • http:// www.ukzuz.cz

5. GENERAL DIRECTOR GENERAL DIRECTOR Division of perennial plants Internal Audit EKONOMIC AND ADMINISTRATION SECTION Personnel Department Property inspector IT Department Chief Metrologist Department of GIS and publishing Inspector for Fire Protection, Safety and Health at Work and Civil Defence Division of Agrochemistry, Soil and Plant Nutrition AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES AND SOIL SECTION Division of Feedingstuff AUTHORITY OFFICE Division of Animal Production Secretariat of the institute Director PLANT PRODUCTION SECTION Division of Plant Variety Testing Division of Seed and Planting Materials Foreign relations and EU Department Division of perennial plants Legal Department NATIONAL REFERENCE LABORATORY CISTA Structure Division of Economic, Finance and Property Keeping Internal Audit EKONOMIC AND ADMINISTRATION SECTION Personnel Department Property Inspector IT Department Chief Metrologist Department of GIS and Publishing Inspector for Fire Protection, Safety and Health at Work and Civil Defence Division of Agrochemistry, Soil and Plant Nutrition AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES AND SOIL SECTION Division of Feedingstuff AUTHORITYOFFICE Division of Animal Production Secretariat of the Institute Director PLANT PRODUCTION SECTION Division of Plant Variety Testing Division of Seed and Planting Materials Foreign Relations and EU Department Division of Perennial Plants Legal Department NATIONAL REFERENCE LABORATORY

6. Proceedings for the Grant of Plant Variety Rights The plant variety rights may be granted to the variety which satisfies conditions of • Novelty • Distinctness • Uniformity • Stability

7. Proceedings for the Grant of Plant Variety Rights • Protective rights cannot be granted to a variety, to which a Community plant variety right has been granted, • CISTA is the authority of the first instance, which decides about grant of the plant variety rights in the administrative procedure CISTA according to the provisions set up in the Act No 408/2000 Coll., • The procedure about grant of the plant variety rights is in the competence of Plant Variety Testing Division of CISTA, • Appeals against the Institute's decisions shall be decided by the Ministry, who is the appellate instance.

8. Disposal of the Legally Protected Varieties The holder has the sole authority to use the protected variety consisting of the right to exploit the propagating material of such variety as follows: • Production or propagation, • Conditioning for the purpose of propagation, • Offering for sale, • Sale or other marketing, • Market introduction for Member States and export to third countries, • Market introduction from Member States and import from third countries, • Stocking for the purposes above mentioned.

9. Disposal of the Legally Protected Varieties Theholder might provide his consent with the use of the protected variety to a third person and to set up the license charge (the license shall be provided in writing). The Act No 408/2000 Coll., amended in the end of the year 2005 regulates obligations of growers and processors to give information to holders of breeding rights at request: Identification data of growers and processors, Quantity of farm seed or planting material which was delivered for condition, Information about the scope of farm seed or planting material used.

10. Disposal of the Legally Protected Varieties A processor who intends to perform conditioning of propagating material of protected varieties must notify the Institute in writing of this activity before its initiation. In the case of duties default, an administrative offence is committed and a fine of up to CZK 500,000 (approx. 17 000 €), shall be assessed. The Institute (namely law department) considers administrative offences in the first degree. In general the administrative offences are very rarely committed under the Act No 408/2000 Coll.

11. Enforcement of Plant Variety Rights A) Generally New varieties have always got desirable characters which help the farmers to run the farm more efficiently and even sparingly to environment. New varieties originate in the breeding process and breeder use the fees from using his/her already breeding varieties to finance his/her work. • These fees are: • License fees from license contracts • Adequate compensation for the use of the farm seed or planting material (approximately 50 % of license fees)

12. B) The national legislation in the field of plant variety rights enforcement The problems of plant variety rights enforcement is stipulated by the Act No 408/2000 Coll., on the protection of plant variety rights. Disputes resulting from legal relations established on the basis of this Act shall be discussed and decided by courts. According to the Act No 99/1963 Coll., on Civil Procedure Court, as amended, Regional courts have jurisdiction according to the subject matter to deal with cases of industrial property claims (that also includes breeding rights) as a courts of first instance. In disputes about compulsory payment there are two types of courts of first instance: • District Courts – the amount under 100.000,- Kč (less then 3.400,- €), • Regional Courts - the amount over 100.000,- Kč (more then 3.400,- €).

13. C) Authorized persons to reclaim plant variety rights • Holders of breeding rights, • Assignees to a license for a protected variety, • Professional organizations authorized to represent holders (Variety Owners´ Cooperative).

14. D) Actions and adjudication • Action for refraining from illegal acting and correcting the defect. • Action for compensation of damage • Action for reasonable satisfaction • Action for withdrawing from the circulation or destroying of the plant propagating material or harvested material

15. Civil courts The court shall look to the interest of third parties, in particular of consumers and persons acting in good faith mainly if the measures for redress aim at the propagating material or the harvested material of a variety, which is not owned by the person violating the holder’s right. An authorized person may claim at the court the rights mentioned above and similarly with respect to the intermediary, whose resources or services are used by third parties for the violation of rights The court may in its judgment acknowledge to the authorized person, whose proposal was accepted, the right to publish the judgment at the expense of the violator, who did not prevail in the dispute, and depending on the conditions, determine the extent, form and method of publication.

16. Enforcement of Plant Variety Rights in Practise • Variety Owners´ Cooperative • asserts plant variety rights claim, • is entitled to represent the breeding rights holders, • an association of corporate bodies and natural persons, owners ofplant varieties, • registered in the Czech Republic.

17. Enforcement of Plant Variety Rights in Practise • According to the EU and national legislation CISTA is notan entitled authority to enforce plant variety rights, because no state authority is allowed to encroach upon private relationships. • That is the reason why CISTA has not got self-contained list about brought actions and results of litigations. • Due to information given by Variety Owners´ Cooperative it can be said that there is a high percentage of enforcement. • Concrete numbers will be probably presented by representative of Variety Owners´ Cooperative.

18. Enforcement of Plant Variety Rights in the Field of Ornamental Plants According to CISTA information the judicial enforcement of plant variety rights is claimed mainly in the area of farm crop in contrast to the area of ornamental plants where no present trial is known. In the Czech Republic the granting of variety protection in the area of ornamental plants is not very popular in contrasts to other EU members. Nowadays there are only ten registered ornamental plants in the Czech Republic, which are legally protected. Nowadays there are running 64 administration proceedings about granting of plant variety rights in CISTA which shows gently increasing interest in this field. Ten protected ornamental plants are registered by three subjects: 1. Výzkumný ústav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasné zahradnictví (CR), (The Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening) 2. Ing. Jan Zima (CR), 3. Elsner pac Jungpflanzen (D), represented by Ing. Jarmila Zimová in the Czech Republic

19. List of Legally Protected Ornamental Plants in the Czech Republic

25. THANK YOU A LOT FOR YOUR ATTENTION Petr Vaculík Jaroslav Juřica