China's top court publishes five plant variety protection cases

China's Supreme People's Court published five cases on plant variety rights during the country's food security awareness week.

The cases cover rice, wheat, corn, passion fruit and blueberries, and show how courts have handled unauthorized breeding and sales of protected seeds and seedlings.

Plant variety rights protect breeders' new varieties, and the cases address ways businesses have tried to avoid responsibility or make infringement hard to prove.

Two cases used punitive damages for serious infringement, while two awarded the full compensation sought by the rights holders.

In one passion fruit case, the court ordered more than 7.6 million yuan in compensation after using the seller's own public business information to estimate the scale of unauthorized seedling production.

The rulings also set clearer rules on issues such as successor businesses, evidence of production volumes and destruction of infringing seedlings.

The court said the decisions aim to protect breeding innovation and support food security; no further steps were specified.