Your source of knowledge on IP for plants
The ciopora academy 2023: worKshop in Madrid, Spain About This Event The CIOPORA Academy is making its fifth return to Madrid! Join us for this highly acknowledged workshop which is tailor-made for professionals within the fruit sector who are eager to delve deeper into the …
The ciopora academy 2023: IN-Person worKshop in Hong Kong About This Event We are delighted to announce that The CIOPORA Academy is hosting it’s first workshop in Hong Kong! This event is designed to provide in-depth knowledge and practical insights into the world of plant …
We are delighted to announce that The CIOPORA Academy is hosting a workshop in Alexandria, USA! This event is designed to provide in-depth knowledge and practical insights into the world of plant variety protection and intellectual property rights.
The full-day in-person workshop will take place on April 17, 2023, during the CIOPORA Annual General Meeting (AGM) Week. It will feature experts from the field who will share their experiences and lead interactive discussions on a range of topics.
Whether you’re an industry professional, academic, student or just interested in learning more about plant variety protection and IP rights, this workshop is for you!
Monday, April 17, 2023
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM EST
Venue: The Alexandrian Old Town
480 King Street, Alexandria, VA – 22314, US
T: + 1 703-549-6080 | Website | Google Maps
Accommodation:
Book a room at The Alexandrian Old Town
Book a room at Holiday Inn Express
Learn more about CIOPORA AGM 2023
Sign up before: April 7, 2023.
Important notice: Special Terms & Conditions apply to this event. This workshop is a part of the CIOPORA AGM Week program 2023
* Subject to updates
08:30 – 09:00 – Arrival & registration
09:00 – 10:15
Importing plant material and national listings in China
Speakers: Alanna Rennie & Andrew Sim, Baker McKenzie
Andrew and Alanna will discuss practical and legal issues faced by breeders looking to import plant material into China for the purpose of DUS testing and commercialisation. Andrew and Alanna will also explore the variety recording and registration system in China which is a pre-condition to promoting certain varieties in China. They will also explore the added benefits of this system in the context of enforcement.
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.
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
Enforcing Plant Breeders’ Rights in China – Case study and Practical Experience
Speaker: Heidi Jade, Zespri International
In this practical session, you will learn about the opportunities and challenges of enforcing plant breeders’ rights in China. Heidi will share her experience of implementing an enforcement strategy in China and developing an all-of-business approach to enforcement. She will discuss some of the unique regulatory challenges Zespri encounters, being a company regulated by an Act of parliament and will highlight the balancing act between best-practice and practical realities. Heidi will provide recent insights into the enforcement of rights for the proprietary cultivar known as Zespri SunGold, following unauthorized propagation and sale of fruit in China.
Intangible Asset Manager
Zespri International
Heidi is the Intangible Asset Manager at Zespri International Limited, based in New Zealand. Zespri is the world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit, selling in more than 50 countries. Heidi manages the global portfolio of intangible assets for Zespri, from creation through to protection, commercialisation, maintenance, and enforcement. Although Plant Breeders’ Rights form a significant part of the portfolio, Heidi leverages a broad set of assets to optimise value including Trade Marks, Data, Trade secrets, and Regulatory approvals. Heidi has extensive experience with the protection and enforcement of Plant Breeders’ Rights globally, particularly in China following unauthorised propagation and sale of fruit from Zespri’s proprietary cultivar marketed as Zespri SunGold™.
With broad experience in New Zealand’s primary industry sector and having completed a Masters of Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland, Heidi is passionate about leveraging multiple commercialisation approaches to provide strategic value. She contributed to the submissions and workshops to improve New Zealand’s PVR legislation, which resulted in the PVR Act 2022, a positive step forward to encourage plant breeding innovation.
12:00 – 13:30 – Networking lunch
13:30 – 14:45
The Latest Amendment to Japanese PVP law – Application of UPOV Convention and Implications for Improving PVP enforcement
Speaker: Minori Hagiwara, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF)
Japan, one of the early members of UPOV 1991 Convention, has recently amended the PVP law, allowing PBR holders to restrict the area of cultivation of their protected varieties, enabling effective branding and regional agricultural competitiveness. This lecture will touch upon the challenges of PVP as well as the underlining interpretation of relevant UPOV articles leading to the amendment and invites attendants to consider the ways in which UPOV convention can be implemented in national legislation as well as what can further be improved.
Director of International Affairs on Plant Variety Protection
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF)
Minori Hagiwara, is Director of the office for International Affairs on Plant Variety Protection at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) and is the Vice-Chair of the UPOV Administrative and Legal Committee. With a decade of experience in planning and implementing various legal amendments in the agricultural and food sector, she has expertise in reflecting policy needs into legal amendments. In 2013, she paneled in the International Association for the Study of Commons where she presented her paper on “International Treaty Designs and Resilience for Climate Change.” As the head of the Japanese delegation to UPOV, she has been raising concerns to the current interpretation of the UPOV convention and has been advocating for the need to increase the effectiveness of the PVP systems, on topics such as harvested material and Essentially Derived Varieties.
14:45 – 15:15 – Networking Coffee Break
15:15 -16:30
How to control imports into the U.S. through IP Protection
Speaker: Travis Bliss & Stephany Small, Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel
We now live in a global economy where goods can pass across territorial borders at unprecedented speed. This presents many great opportunities for horticulture companies but also presents challenges as a company must know how to effectively control imports into the U.S. or they risk losing a huge revenue stream from those U.S. sales. This is further exacerbated when the material that can be imported is not just whole plants, but also plant parts, such as cut flowers or fruit.
This presentation will discuss the types of import protections that can be achieved through U.S. plant patent, utility patent, PVP, and trademark protections from the standpoint of whole plants, harvested material, and even downstream varieties (EDVs, F1s, etc.). It will also discuss the impact that IP exhaustion has on those protections and how appropriate license language can help to fill the gaps that the IP rights themselves leave.
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).
16:30 – 16:45 – Networking Coffee Break
16:45 -18:00
Navigating global commercialisation of new varieties
Speaker: Emma Brown, The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research
Plant & Food Research operates a wide variety of plant breeding programmes in the fruit, arable, and ornamental sectors with breeding programmes located both in Aotearoa New Zealand and offshore. We work together with commercialising partners around the world to commercialise the new varieties developed from our breeding programmes for the benefit of all parties involved in the value chain. Some of our most successful varieties include those that underpin the brands Wake®, Jazz™, Envy™, and SunGold™ Kiwifruit.
In this session we will explore a range of factors that underpin the successful global commercialisation of new varieties and share some experiences of navigating the commercial valley of death through case studies.
General Manager Plant Varieties
The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research
The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited is a Crown Research Institute. Our purpose is to enhance the value and productivity of New Zealand’s horticultural, arable, seafood, and food and beverage industries, to contribute to economic growth and the environmental and social prosperity of Aotearoa New Zealand. Plant & Food Research operates a wide variety of plant breeding programmes in the fruit, arable, and ornamental sectors with breeding programmes located both in Aotearoa New Zealand and offshore.
As General Manager Plant Varieties, Emma leads the strategic protection and commercialisation of intellectual assets leveraging plant varieties from Plant & Food Research’s breeding programmes together with our commercialisation partners, joint ventures, and licensees. She completed an MSc in Horticultural Science at Massey University and went on to become the inaugural graduate of the CIOPORA Academy with a certificate in IP Competence.
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
