Anyone who misses the re-registration and payment deadline at the end of June 2023 may be at risk legal and financial consequences. The EU Court of Justice recently decided how high the compensation may be ECJ:
On four times the Z royalty amounted, for example, to the compensation that the STV demanded from a replica builder in Rhineland-Palatinate. The STV referred to the EU regulation 1768/95, which uses four times the average amount of the license fee as the basis for compensation in the event of a violation. From the point of view of the EU Court of Justice ECJ However, this rule violates the basic regulation (EC) No. 2100/94 on the common EU plant variety protection. First, the Higher Regional Court of Zweibrücken dealt with the case and then turned to the ECJ.
According to the ECJ, the breeder may not demand any compensation that is higher than the simple Z license. Higher demands are illegal overcompensation. However, no further damage to the breeder may be proven.
The STV writes on its website: “If the farmer has breached his duty to conceal the reproduction of protected plant varieties or has not paid the reproduction fees or not paid them on time, there is a Breeder variety protection infringement before. Instead of a rebuild fee, the farmer has to pay damages equal to the full Z license fee.”