07/05/2019

20-21/10/2019 – Madrid Workshop on IP for Plants

Workshop:

The 3d edition of the Madrid Workshop on IP for Plants will take place one day prior to the Fruit Attraction Madrid on October 21, 2019. The networking dinner is scheduled on October 20.

When?

Networking Dinner – October 20, 2019

Workshop – October 21, 2019

Registration:

Closed

By registering you are agreeing to our Terms & Conditions

Registration deadline: October 11, 2019

Book your accommodation:

Until September 20, you can book your accommodation at the Hotel Novotel Madrid Campo de las Naciones from the CIOPORA Academy block of ten rooms. Use the booking form and send to the hotel by the deadline . Please note that the room rate on October 21 increases due to the Fruit Attraction.

Where?

Hotel Novotel Madrid Campo de las Naciones
Campo de las Naciones
Calle Amsterdam, 3
28042 Madrid
Spain

Event program

October 20 – Networking Dinner:

In the evening before the workshop on Oct 20, you are invited to join a networking dinner at the restaurant La Canica Madrid, situated just a walking distance from the workshop venue. During the meal, you will have an opportunity to reconnect with colleagues, chat with the lecturers and make new business contacts in a relaxed atmosphere. The dinner option can be booked separately.

Meet our group at 19:15 in the Novotel lobby to walk together to the restaurant or join us directly at the venue at 19:30.

October 21 – Workshop program:

Module 1: Plant Breeder’s Rights and their enforcement in Poland by Joanna Pabiniak, Law Firm Joanna Pabiniak, Poland.

What will I learn?

Poland has been a member of UPOV since 1989. The basic legal act that regulates PBR in Poland is the Law on the Legal Protection of Plant Varieties dated June 26, 2003 (Journal of Laws from 2018, item 832). The authority responsible for granting PBR, the Research Centre for Cultivar Testing (COBORU), also acts as an entrusted CPVO Office for certain crops, inter alia strawberries, blackcurrants, raspberries, and blueberries. The presentation will discuss important differences between Polish PBR and CPVR as well as PBR enforcement in Poland, providing an overview of the court cases and recommendations as to how to best assume control over the IP assets and minimize the risk of illegal propagation.

Module 2: Advanced-level license contracts by Tjeerd Overdijk, Partner at Vondst, The Netherlands

What will I learn?

During this module, the speaker will explain the concept of licensing and provide an overview of various types of licensing contracts. This lecture will also provide guidance in regard of practical issues surrounding licensing, such as whether a license should be registered. The hard core of this course will be formed by a practical and, hopefully, interactive discussion of all relevant aspects involved with licensing agreements. Notably, with the help of a collection of practical examples the speaker will take you through the essential terms and typical clauses in a licensing agreement, including scope of license, the division of rights (powers) and obligations between licensor and licensee, available options for maintenance and enforcement of the licensed rights, and alternatives for the resolution of disputes.

Module 3: Protection of plant varieties in Egypt by Hadeer Al-Sayed, Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP), Egypt

What will I learn?

Is Egypt able to protect your Plant Breeders’ Rights? In my legal practice, I have met many clients who were not aware that Plant Variety Rights could be protected in Egypt and that PBR constitued one the essential areas of Intellectual Property protection with the established domestic laws and regulations. Egypt has been an observer at UPOV and has recently improved its PBR enforcement procedures. In the course of this lecture, the group will receive an introduction to the Egyptian PBR, including the provisions of domestic legislation as well as related obligations under the international treaties.

Module 4: Trade Secrets and Plant Breeders’ Rights by Fleur Tuinzing-Westerhuis, Houthoff, The Netherlands

What will I learn?

Present-day breeding companies employ data-driven technologies that generate valuable information about their breeding programmes that is kept as a trade secret. In recent years, trade secrets have become as important as patent rights for protecting innovation. While globalisation and increasing digitalisation present new challenges to safeguarding trade secrets, plant breeders need to know what, in legal terms, constitutes a trade secret and how confidentiality and the use thereof can be monitored and preserved. This lecture will focus on the EU legal framework for the protection of trade secrets.

Module 5: Protection of harvested material by Tjeerd Overdijk, Partner at Vondst, The Netherlands

What will I learn?

During this module, the speaker will analyse the notion of ‘harvested material’ in Plant Variety Rights law. The focus will be, inter alia, on the interrelationship between harvested material, on the one hand, and ‘propagating material’ and ‘products directly obtained’ from harvested material, on the other. During the lecture, we will look into the cumulative conditions imposed on the protection of harvested material under both UPOV 1991 and the EU Plant Variety Rights legislation. Also, the place of harvested material in licence contracts and its fate under the doctrine of exhaustion (first sale) will be discussed. In this context, attention will be paid to UPOV’s attempts to clarify the conditional protection of harvested material, as well as to the potential impact of the recent CJEU’s Advocate-General’s Opinion in the Nadorcott mandarin case.

Meet the speakers

Joanna Pabiniak is an attorney-at-law and the owner of the Kancelaria Pabiniak, a law firm based in Lodz, Poland. She advises her clients on all aspects of IP protection for plant innovations, including licensing and enforcement of IP rights, and has represented clients from the fruit sector in several PBR court cases in Poland. Joanna holds a Law degree from the Lodz University. From 2003 to 2006, she underwent and completed a judge training at the District Court of Lodz passing her judicial exam. Since December 2006, she has been a member of the Regional Chamber of Legal Advisors in Lodz and a member of the Lodz Bar Association

Tjeerd Overdijk

Partner, Vondst Advocaten, the Netherlands

Tjeerd Overdijk studied Law at Leiden University and has been a lawyer since 1984. With over 25 years of experience, he is an all-rounder in the field of Intellectual Property with a special interest in Plant Variety Rights. He was involved in the world’s first court case on the concept of Essentially Derived Varieties (EDVs) and he has gained considerable experience on this subject. He also has experience with litigation before the Board of Appeal of the Community Plant Variety Office in Angers, France. Tjeerd is a member of various professional associations, including CIOPORA, the Netherlands Copyright Association, the AIPPI, INTA, MARQUES and the European Communities Trademarks Association (ECTA).

Hadeer is a Senior IP Lawyer specializing in Patents and Plant Variety Rights at the Egypt office of Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP). Being a part of TAG.Global, one of the largest global groups of law firms, AGIP operates primarily in the Arab region. AGIP works with and advises Arab governments and multilateral organizations in the area of IP protection and has assisted some of these governments in the drafting of IP laws. Hadeer holds a Master of Laws Degree from Cairo University along with her qualifications in public and private law. She is a certified Arab IP practitioner and has graduated from several advanced training courses on IP offered by WIPO, including the advanced courses on copyright, patent drafting and patent information search. Hadeer is currently a PhD candidate.

Fleur Tuinzing-Westerhuis
Counsel at Houthoff

Fleur Tuinzing-Westerhuis is a Counsel at Houtfoff (The Netherlands) and specializes in technology-related Intellectual Property matters, with focus on Patents and Plant Variety Rights. In her daily practice, Fleur represents a wide variety of domestic and international companies that are active in technology-intensive business sectors, such as agrifood and biotech. Fleur is an experienced patent litigator and is one of a handful of lawyers in the Netherlands with extensive experience in litigation relating to national and Community Plant Variety Rights. Over the past seventeen years, Fleur has litigated in various cases before the Dutch courts, the Dutch Board of Plant Varieties and the CPVO. Furthermore, Fleur has broad experience in advising on commercial contracts, including R&D agreements, license and technology transfer agreements.