Breeders are facing difficulties when enforcing their community and national PVR, widely due to insufficient knowledge of the applicable legislation amongst breeders, growers, lawyers, prosecutors and judges. For this reason, the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) organises yearly seminars on the enforcement of PVR throughout the whole of Europe. 

As part of its campaign to support PVR, Secretary of AIPH's Standing Committee for Novelty Protection, Mia Buma, spoke on the enforcement of PVR in the ornamental sector: the growers point of view. AIPH is encouraging countries to accelerate the implementation of breeder’s rights and to bring their legislation into line with the UPOV-convention 1991. 

She said, “PVR has to be exercised and enforced in balance with the interests of all parties involved, like breeders, producers, traders and exporters and finally consumers. In order to be effective, a PVR law must be accompanied by effective enforcement tools. Any national legislation has to fulfil on this point the requirements of the UPOV 1991 Act and TRIPS Agreement. The enforcement of PVR, like all Intellectual Property Rights, must be affordable for all title holders, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.” 

This year the seminar, which took place in Zagreb, Croatia, facilitated the sharing of information and experience relating to the enforcement of PVR in Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It also raised awareness of the applicable legislation in Croatia and neighbouring countries. AIPH believes that these yearly CPVO seminars play a role in trying to make up for insufficient knowledge of the legislation and the accompanying enforcement tools amongst all the involved parties.  

Around 120 participants attended the seminar including intellectual property practitioners specialized in plant variety protection, as well as breeders, farmers, trade companies, lawyers, judges and government representatives.