Luxembourg, 27/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Court of Justice's press department has issued the last press release of the quarter, listing hearings and rulings for 17 April 2002 (and for the Court of First Instance on 9 April). The press release covers the Schulin case, for which Advocate-General Ruiz Jarabo has published conclusions - the obligation to provide information about the use of farmers' "privileges" only applies to farmers who've acquired propagation material for a protected plant variety under licence. The lack of a formal contract between the rights holder and the farmer buying the propagation material of a protected variety does not prevent there being a legal relationship between them, he argued.
The 1994 regulation that sets up a Community protection system for new plant varieties includes an exception to the general principle of protection for the holder's rights. The exception is known as the farmer's "privilege" and it allows farmers to sow the fruit of the harvest of a protected variety on their farm without having to gain permission from the holder of the right.
A 1995 regulation stipulates that farmers making use of this option have to pay fair compensation to the right holder (considerably less than amount charged for the production under licence of the propagating material for that plant variety in the same region). The regulation also sets out rules on the obligation of the farmer to provide information in order to enable the right holder to receive the compensation.
The farmer Christian Schulin refused to provide the seed company (Saatgut-Treuhandverwaltungs GmbH) with information about whether he had used the farmer privilege in the 1997/1998 marketing year.
The Oberlandsgericht of Frankfurt-am-Main requested a preliminary ruling from the Court about whether the holder of Community rights over a new plant variety had the right to demand information from a farmer in order to demand the payment of a contribution for using the farmer privilege, even when there is no proof that the farmer has used the plant variety in question on the farm.
The Advocate-General said that the obligation to provide information only concerns farmers who have bought the propagation material of a protected species under licence. The press release further explains that the Germany company wanting to contact all the farmers in a country to get them to provide information about the use of the fruits of a harvest of a protected species which have not necessarily come from certified seeds is a "disproportionate" demand.
In terms of the obligations of farmers using the privilege, the Advocate-General said that they may be set out in a separate contract from the main contract (the contract authorising the farmer to use the protected plant variety), but even if such an additional contract has not been signed, there is a legal relationship between the holder or the holder's representatives and the farmer buying the replication material for the first time. Which is why it is logical for the right holder to arrange to receive constant information, through intermediaries and seed suppliers, about the identity of the people buying propagation material.