Your source of knowledge on IP for plants
The ciopora academy 2022:worKshop in Amsterdam, The Netherlands About This Event We are happy to be back in Amsterdam with a full-day workshop hosted by The CIOPORA Academy, the world’s first educational program focused solely on Intellectual Property protection and rights in the horticultural industry. …
The ciopora academy 2022:worKshop in Madrid, Spain About This Event We are happy to be back in Madrid for a third time with a full-day workshop hosted by The CIOPORA Academy, the world’s first educational program focused solely on Intellectual Property protection and rights in …
The CIOPORA Academy comes back in 2022 with the first in-person workshop in two years!
On April 25, join our one-day in-person workshop in Cologne, Germany, during the CIOPORA Annual General Meeting (AGM) Week 2022.
April 25, 2022
9 AM – 6:15 PM CEST
Venue: Marriott Cologne
Johannisstraße 76-80
50668 Cologne
Accommodation:
Book a room at Marriot Cologne
Book a room at Courtyard by Marriott
Learn more about CIOPORA AGM 2022
This is a HYBRID event. Register for IN-PERSON Workshop tickets as well as ONLINE tickets here.
Important notice: Special Terms & Conditions apply to this event. This workshop is a part of the CIOPORA AGM Week program 2022.
* Subject to updates
08:30 – 09:00 – Arrival & registration
09:00 – 10:15
Updates on Enforcement of IP Rights in China
Speakers: Alanna Rennie & Andrew Sim, Baker McKenzie
This lecture will explore some of the legislative and judicial progress made to Plant Variety Rights in China over the last year, including amendments to China’s Seed Law, the Supreme People’s Court Judicial Interpretation on Plant Variety Rights, noteworthy enforcement cases, and some practical tips for enforcement action in China.
Associate, Baker McKenzie, Australia
Alanna Rennie is an Associate at law firm Baker McKenzie in Sydney (Australia), where she practices Mergers and Acquisitions and plant Intellectual Property. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws with honors from Bond University, Gold Coast, and a Masters in Chinese Law from Tsinghua University, Beijing. Alanna’s Master’s thesis was on Plant Breeder’s Rights in China, where she engaged closely with China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the State Forestry and Grasslands Administration, international plant breeders active in or looking to enter the Chinese market, and other stakeholders. Alanna worked with CIOPORA in 2018, where she assisted the association with its activities in China, and continues to assist CIOPORA on various projects in Australia and China in a pro bono capacity. In her capacity at Baker McKenzie and through her work with CIOPORA, Alanna has worked closely with breeding companies on their commercial and intellectual property strategies in China and Australia as well as on novel enforcement issues.
Partner, Baker McKenzie, Hong Kong
Andrew Sim is a partner in Baker McKenzie’s Hong Kong office and a member of the Firm’s Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group, where he leads the IP enforcement and litigation practice for Hong Kong.
He is the Global Chair of the Plant Variety Rights Practice, which includes registration and enforcement of plant breeders’ rights. Andrew also heads the Food and Beverage (F&B) Industry Practice Group in the Greater China region and advises on all F&B related areas, including consumer, regulatory, food safety, advertisements, franchising as well as internet laws, and regulations.
10:15 – 10:45 – Networking coffee break
10:45 – 12:00
Comprehensive Measures against IP Infringements
Speaker: Philippe de Jong, Altius
Learn how to devise a comprehensive IP and regulatory EU enforcement strategy to protect your business, from trying to solve conflicts before they even arise, through pre-trial discovery and evidence collection, to actual litigation and its aftermath. With this toolkit in hand, your company will be harnessed for future anti-infringement actions under the various relevant European IP regimes.
Philippe is a Partner at Altius (Belgium) and specialises in Intellectual Property law, with a particular focus on Patents, Plant Variety Rights and parallel import issues. Philippe also has extensive experience in regulatory matters concerning the life sciences and agri-food industries. Other areas of practice include medical law, media law and fair trade practices in a variety of sectors.
Philippe regularly lectures at conferences and seminars and publishes articles in various leading legal journals relating to his area of expertise.
He has worked as a consultant for the EU Plant Variety Office and is also an active member of various lawyer and sector organisations, including: the European Patent Lawyers Association (EPLAW), Euroseeds, the Licensing Executives Society (LES), and the International Community of Breeders of Asexually Reproduced Horticultural Plants (CIOPORA).
12:00 – 13:30 – Networking lunch
13:30 – 14:45
Issues and Troubleshooting in the PBR Application Process at the CPVO
Speaker: Thomas Leidereiter, Green Rights
“Troubleshooting” is a process of fault identification in the management flow of a system or a corporation. The problem is initially described as a symptom of malfunction, and troubleshooting is the process of determining and remedying its causes.
Looking at (the Community) Plant Variety Rights applications, there is a surprisingly large number of pitfalls, the origin of which may be traced back to the time before the actual application filing. This presentation analyses different stages of a plant variety’s life cycle (before the actual breeding, the filing of the CPVR application, during the CPVR examination, as well as after the CPVR grant), identifying possible issues and available remedies. Following the “symptom – cause – remedy” logic, the participants will be trained to anticipate and remedy the problems in their practice.
Attorney, Green Rights, Germany
Thomas Leidreiter is an attorney and the owner of Green Rights in Hamburg, Germany. With nearly two decades’ experience as a specialized IP lawyer, including 14 years at a major German law firm and five years at his own, he has extensive expertise covering Plant Variety Protection, trademarks, designs, copyright and competition law. Thomas advises clients on all aspects of IP protection for plant innovations, including the licensing and enforcement of IP rights. He has been involved in a number of major court cases dealing with fundamental PVR issues in the ornamental and fruit sector. Thomas is a member of INTA, the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (GRUR), CIOPORA and CIOPORA Germany. He is a regular speaker on IP topics with several associations and institutions.
14:45 – 15:15 – Networking Coffee Break
15:15 – 16:30
The Interplay between PVR and Patent Protection in Plant Breeding
Speaker: Fleur Tuinzing-Westerhuis, Houthoff
The Patent and PVR system overlap in the protection of plant breeding, but there are important differences. During this course, we will discuss the interplay between these two systems and we will touch upon the protection of Essentially Derived Varieties and the regime for compulsory dependency licenses.
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.
16:30 – 17:00 – Networking Coffee Break
17:00 – 18:15
Effective Enforcement of the U.S. Plant IP Rights: Interplay between Scope, Exhaustion, License Terms, and Court Limitations
Speakers: Travis Bliss & Stephany Small, Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel
Unlike other countries, the U.S. provides breeders with multiple options for protecting novel plant varieties with differing scopes of protection and exhaustion and exemption limitations, all of which impact enforcement issues. The terms of the licenses entered into between breeders and growers provide additional variables that come into play when enforcing IP rights. In this session we will discuss the interplay between the scope of protection offered by the various IP rights, the related issues of exhaustion and exemptions that each brings, and the terms that can be effectively utilized in a license for such IP rights and examine how those impact certain enforcement issues and limitations of U.S. courts.
Partner at
Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP
Travis Bliss counsels a variety of clients ranging from individual inventors to small businesses to Fortune 500 companies in nearly all aspects of Intellectual Property law. Travis prepares and prosecutes patent applications; litigates patent, Trademark, and other IP disputes in federal and state courts; represents clients before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board; counsels clients in a variety of IP issues, including due diligence, FTO, infringement, and patentability; and prepares and negotiates IP licenses. From a technology standpoint, Travis’s practice falls largely within the life sciences field and also includes a large focus on novel plant varieties in the agriculture, horticulture, and cannabis/hemp industries. Travis has been a lawyer member of CIOPORA since 2014.
Patent Agent
Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP
Stephany G. Small, Ph.D., is a Patent Agent at CIOPORA lawyer member Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP (USA). Stephany works with clients ranging from large life science companies to individual inventors to protect their valued Intellectual Property. She prepares and prosecutes the U.S. and foreign patent applications for inventions related to all aspects of life science. She is involved in FDA Orange Book submissions and Patent Term Extension Applications and also assists clients with preparing opinions relating to patentability and freedom to operate. Stephany collaborates in patent interferences and inter partes review proceedings before the U.S. Patent Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
