WRITTEN QUESTION P-2264/00

by Vincenzo Lavarra (PSE) to the Commission

(29 June 2000)

Subject: Right to market table grapes included, and approved for cultivation, in the catalogue of national varieties in Italy in accordance with Community rules

A number of producers of seedless grapes in southern Italy, and particularly producers of the Sugraone variety (which has been duly entered and approved for cultivation in the catalogue of national varieties in Italy) are concerned by the behaviour of certain Community importers who refuse to purchase Sugraone grapes unless the producer can prove he has paid production royalties to an American company that claims to have patent rights to the variety in question (although under a different name) that also apply when the product is marketed.

Could the Commission answer the following questions, with a view to preventing unfair charges and distortions of the internal market:

1. Can producers lawfully and freely market Sugraone grapes, without being subject to any restrictions by potential Community purchasers in terms of proving that they have paid production royalties?

2. Does the obligation to pay royalties at the production and marketing stage (and the requirement for purchasers to check that such royalties have been paid) apply solely to the marketing of varieties of table grapes that have been patented and have registered names and trademarks, or do such obligations also apply to producers marketing named varieties of table grapes, such as Sugraone grapes, which are included, and approved for cultivation, in the catalogue of national varieties in Italy in accordance with Community rules?

Supplementary answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(19 September 2000)

The registration of a variety in the Italian national catalogue of varieties does not mean that it is not also protected under the Community or national rules on new plant varieties. To answer the questions raised, it is necessary to know the exact nature and the scope of the protection from which the variety of table grape mentioned benefits, which the question does not specify.

If the variety mentioned (Sugraone) is not the subject of Community protection of new plant varieties, as provided for in Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 of 27 July 1994 on Community plant variety rights(1), which is the responsibility of the Community Plant Variety Office, it may be that it is the subject of protection of the same type at Italian national level, which the Honourable Member will be able to check with the Italian authorities dealing with new plant varieties.

As an indication, the scope of the Community protection of new plant varieties provided by Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 extends to the harvested material of the variety, including fruit, if it was obtained by the unauthorised use of variety constituents of the protected variety. Perhaps, therefore, purchasers wish to make sure that the fruit that they market was produced by authorised propagating material of the protected variety.

The above protection applies as much to products marketed under a registered trademark as to products resulting from the same variety which are marketed under other non-protected trade descriptions. However, in all cases, Commission Regulation (EC) No 2789/1999 of 22 December 1999 laying down the marketing standard for table grapes(2) stipulates that packages have to show, in any event, the name of the variety.

(1) OJ L 227, 1.9.1994.

(2) OJ L 336, 29.12.1999.