Sources from the National Symposium on the Law Enforcement in Protecting the Rights of New Plant Variety jointly held by Ministry of Agriculture and Supreme People’s Court in Chengdu, Sichuan Province recently indicates that the Ministry of Agriculture has decided to expand the pilot project of law enforcement in protecting the rights of new plant variety. On the basis of summing up the experience of the existing pilot project, efforts will be made to extensively and deeply promote the pilot project and actively explore more coordinative and effective law-enforcement mechanisms for protection of the rights of new variety.

According to Shi Yanquan, Deputy Director of Education, Science and Technology Department of Ministry of Agriculture, his ministry launches the pilot project of law enforcement in protecting new plant variety in 2002, and the project is expected to cover 22 provinces in 2008 from the basis of 15 provinces last year. The pilot project powerfully cracks down on the practice of variety right imitations and infringements and maintains the legal rights and interests of right holders and farmers, strongly safeguarding the effectiveness of new plant variety rights protection system.

Mr. Shi says the protection of the rights of new plant variety, which is at the core part of the IPR protection system in agriculture sector, is an effective stimulation mechanism of scientifically allocating breeding and innovation resources for more and better varieties, and the great impetus to boost variety innovation and science and technology progresses in agriculture sector, which influences the national food security and effective supply of agricultural products. China will never allow the practice of rights imitations and infringements to rampantly violet the legal rights and interests of rights holders and damage breeders’ enthusiasm for innovation.

In recent years, with the constant strengthening of the law enforcement in protecting the rights of new plant variety, the number of cases of variety rights imitation and infringement in China keeps dropping every year. Statistics show that in 2007, administrative departments totally handle 87 cases related to variety rights, and people’s courts of various levels also handle 113 cases of variety right disputes.