The third edition of this authoritative guide to the European Community plant variety protection system combines comprehensive explanation of the system with practical guidance on obtaining and enforcing protection.

This authoritative new work analyses European plant intellectual property rights. Whilst the focus of the work is on Europe, and in particular the European Patent Convention, the Council Regulation on Community Plant Variety Rights and the EU Directive on the Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions, these provisions are discussed within the context of international legislation, including the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is the first book to look at the impact of plant intellectual property rights on the European plant breeding industry and assess whether recent developments, such as the Novartis decision, will assist plant breeders, from all sectors of plant breeding activities, in the production of new plant products. In addition to a thorough discussion of the legislation, the book includes unique empirical research results obtained by the authors as part of a two-year research project funded by the European Union, which surveyed attitudes towards, and use of, plant intellectual property rights within the European plant breeding community.

The study provides an overview of the international intellectual property system regulating plant varieties. It identifies the essential features of this system, including the policies supporting the grant of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and the societal objectives in tension with IPRs, the institutions that have shaped the international intellectual property system, and the basic components contained in the relevant international treaties. The study aims to set forth regulatory options for national governments to protect plant varieties while achieving other public policy objectives relating to plant genetic resources.

Since its approval by the European Parliament in 2001, The European Code of Good Administrative Behaviour has become a vital instrument for putting the principle of good administration into practice. It helps individual citizens to understand and obtain their rights, and promotes the public interest in an open, efficient, and independent European administration. The Code helps citizens to know what administrative standards they are entitled to expect from the EU institutions. It also serves as a useful guide for civil servants in their relations with the public. By making the principle of good administration more concrete, the Code helps to encourage the highest standards of administration.

This book is the first to analyze the compliance of different types of a breeder's exception to patent rights with article 30 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. This type of exception allows using protected biological matter for breeding new varieties of plants. The breeder’s exception is widely accepted under plant variety legislation, but it is not common under patent laws despite the fact that patent rights often cover plant varieties. Only few European countries have adopted such an exception. After the entry into force of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, the exception will be mandatory for all European Union Member states. Based on a legal and economic approach, this book offers guidance to those countries that need to incorporate a breeder's exception into their national patent systems and suggests the importance of the exception for promoting plant breeding activities.

European Intellectual Property Law offers a full account of the main areas of substantive European intellectual property law - including the law of copyright and related rights, patents and plant variety rights, trademarks, design rights, and rights in data and information.

This book is an invaluable and practical guide to the European Union plant variety protection system under Council Regulation (EC) 2100/94 and how it enables breeders from all corners of the world to protect new varieties of plants in the European Union with a tailor-made intellectual property right. It combines a comprehensive explanation of the system with clear guidance on the law in practice, including how to obtain plant variety protection and how to enforce rights to that protection. It analyses the interrelation of plant variety rights with other IP rights, and provides guidance on the appropriate form of protection, considering the strengths and weaknesses of the system. The book also features time-saving references for further information on national, European Union, and international plant variety protection and enforcement. Plant variety law now protects a market of almost 500 million customers, and as awareness of the advantages of EU-wide protection has grown, the volume of cases, as well as scholarship in this area, has grown rapidly. This new edition covers all recent case law of the General Court, the CJEU, and the BoA of the CPVO, in particular with regard to the duty and extent of ex officio investigations and material conditions for grant of EU plant variety rights. It also considers the extent and impact of the 2016 changes in the proceedings regulation. This newly updated guide to the world's largest system for plant variety protection is an essential resource for practitioners in this field.