Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2003:218
Date: 2003-04-10
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Intellectual, industrial and commercial property;Plant varieties
Concepts: Protection of new plant varieties
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

SUMMARY — CASE C-305/00 
S u m m a r y of the J u d g m e n t 
Agriculture — Uniform laws — Protection of plant variety rights — Article 14(3) of 
Regulation No 2100/94 and Article 8 of Regulation No 1768/95 — Holder cannot 
require a farmer to provide the information specified in those provisions where there is no 
indication of use for propagation of a harvest obtained from seeds of a protected variety 
(Council Regulation No 2100/94, Art. 14(2) and (3); Commission Regulation No 1768/95, 
Art. 8) 
The provisions of the sixth indent of 
Article 14(3) of Regulation N o 2100/94 
on Community plant variety rights in 
conjunction with Article 8 of Commission 
Regulation N o 1768/95 implementing rules 
on the agricultural exemption provided for 
in Article 14(3) of Regulation N o 2100/94 
cannot be construed as meaning that the 
holder of a Community plant variety right 
can require a farmer to provide the infor­
mation specified in those provisions where 
there is no indication that the farmer has 
used or will use, for propagating purposes 
in the field, on his own holding, the 
product of the harvest obtained by plant­
ing, on his own holding, propagating 
material of a variety other than a hybrid 
or synthetic variety which is covered by 
that right and belongs to one of the 
a g r i c u l t u r a l p l a n t species l i s ted in 
Article 14(2) of Regulation N o 2100/94. 
(see para. 72, operative part) 
I - 3526