New verdict upholds earlier ruling against the unlawful cultivation and selling of Envy apple plant material and fruit
T&G Global has welcomed the recent Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China judgement upholding an earlier landmark ruling regarding the protection of its Scilate apple plant variety rights.
This new verdict upholds the earlier ruling by the Lanzhou Intermediate Court of Gansu Province in November 2023, which found the defendant had infringed T&G’s intellectual property rights by unlawfully cultivating and selling Scilate variety plant material and apples harvested from the illegally planted materials. The court awarded T&G Rmb3.3mn, recognising and accepting the application to award punitive damages, and requires the infringer to cut out the illegal material.
T&G global chief executive, Gareth Edgecombe, said the decision was important in the protection of intellectual property rights in China and will benefit plant breeders, growers, consumers, customers and the horticultural sector.
“This significant ruling by the Supreme People’s Court show’s China’s strong commitment under its newly strengthened Seed Law to safeguard plant variety rights and put a stop to illegitimate production and infringement,” Edgecombe said. “It has laid a solid foundation for our future enforcement actions.”
In China, Joy Wing Mau is licensed to commercially grow and sell Scilate apples domestically, which are sold as T&G’s premium Envy apple brand.
“With this judgement, Chinese consumers can now have confidence that they are purchasing legitimate, locally-grown Envy apples,” Edgecombe said. “At the same time, it will help develop and grow the country’s horticulture sector through the licensing of high value varieties, supported by modern growing systems.”
Edgecombe said the ruling “gives confidence to horticultural businesses like ours to invest in China knowing that their intellectual property will be well protected”.
“China is an important and growing market for T&G and our premium brands, and we are committed to introducing new plant varieties which benefit Chinese growers, consumers and customers, and helping advance the country’s agriculture sector,” he said.
“We, together with our variety management subsidiary, Venturefruit Global, have a significant pipeline of new apple, pear and berry varieties which we want to license and grow in China, and following this successful ruling, we look forward to progressing our growth plans.”
T&G’s Venturefruit subsidiary leads all plant protection activities on behalf of the Group, protecting T&G’s premium varieties with plant variety rights, plant breeding rights, plant patents, trademarks and copyright.
T&G said Venturefruit would continue to strongly defend T&G’s intellectual property rights against unauthorised plantings, propagation, counterfeiting and trademark infringements, and as part of this, continue to proactively seek cooperation with the relevant authorities in China.
