SVM Wins PremA280 Apple Rights Case Against Yunnan ‘Longwei’

Shennong Variety Management recently won a full victory before China’s Supreme People’s Court, concluding a five-year legal battle over the unauthorized propagation and commercialization of the PremA280 apple cultivar owned by New Zealand’s Prevar and marketed as Charlo.

The PremA280 apple variety features a tall, conical shape with bright red skin and a coloring rate of up to 90%. It has a rich, balanced sweet-tart flavor, and after cold storage becomes crisp, juicy and aromatic. Maturing one week earlier than Royal Gala, it reaches the market in mid-to-late August, providing growers with an attractive early-season advantage. With proper orchard management, the PremA280 variety delivers a marketable yield of up to 85%.

The apple variety PremA280 was granted plant variety rights in China by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Nov. 8, 2018 (PVR No. CNA20120735.4), making it the first overseas apple variety to receive plant variety rights protection in China. The rights holder is Prevar of New Zealand, and SVM is the exclusive authorized manager of PremA280 in China, enjoying the rights of management, use and enforcement.

Commercial licensing and promotion of PremA280 officially began in 2020. A demonstration orchard was established in Yunnan in early 2021, and the first harvest was completed in August 2022, with a total of 45 metric tons of marketable fruit entering trial marketing. Xinrongmao Fruit Industry Technology Group, a member of the Top Fruit Club, is responsible for the exclusive licensed sales of TFC varieties in the Chinese market.

In 2021, SVM discovered that certain organizations and individuals in the Malong district of Qujing, a city in Yunnan province, had been planting and selling PremA280 under the name “Longwei” without authorization. The unauthorized planting area covered 1,333 hectares, and sales had continued for three years. On Oct. 8, 2021, SVM filed a lawsuit against four defendants in the court of first instance for infringement of plant variety rights. The court initially rejected SVM’s claims in April 2023, but the Supreme People’s Court later overturned that decision on appeal.

Ultimately, based on molecular marker analysis conducted by the Plant Variety Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Supreme People’s Court determined that the accused “Longwei” apple (Yunyin Apple No. 2) was essentially identical to PremA280. The four defendants planted the seedlings on a large scale for commercial purposes, constituting unauthorized production and propagation of protected reproductive material.

The court further clarified that the defendants’ claim of prior rights to Yunyin Apple No. 2 was unfounded because it contradicts breeding principles for different entities to independently develop varieties with completely identical genetic traits. The court concluded that Yunyin Apple No. 2 was obtained through the unlawful propagation of PremA280, that its plant material source was therefore illegitimate, and that the identification certificate merely serves as proof of compliance with administrative management requirements and does not constitute proof of rights.

Under the judgment, the Supreme People’s Court ordered the four defendants to pay more than 2 million Chinese yuan ($287,000) in damages, along with additional royalty payments and enforcement costs exceeding 3 million yuan ($431,000), bringing the total award to more than 5 million yuan ($718,000). In addition, they must pay an annual licensing fee per tree to SVM until the day that they cease planting the PremA280 variety or until the expiration of the plant variety rights protection term.

Image: Shennong Variety Management

This article was based on a Chinese article. Read the original article.