Kumamoto Prefecture sued China for tatami.
According to Japan's Asahi Shimbun, it was recently discovered that some China tatami, which was favored by Japanese consumers and sold well, used rushes that Kumamoto owned intellectual property rights and illegally cultivated in China without permission. The genes (DNA) of these tatami rushes were identified by relevant parties in Kumamoto Prefecture, and it was found that their genes were completely consistent with the patented rushes in Kumamoto Prefecture. Therefore, the county decided to apply to the Japanese Customs this month, asking the Customs to ban the import of tatami produced by rush from China.
In 200 1 year, Kumamoto developed a kind of oil-light rushes for tatami, and registered a patent in that year. The tatami woven with this rushes is very slippery, with a good sense of hands and feet, which is very popular. The county believes that these rushes may be smuggled into China and propagated and planted in China.
If the customs accepts Kumamoto's application, it will test the appearance, appearance and genes of tatami when it arrives at the Japanese port. Once it is found to be an infringing product, measures such as confiscation and destruction will be taken. This will be the first time that Japan has taken measures to protect the intellectual property rights of its agricultural products after the formal implementation of the Seedling Amendment Law, which will have an important impact on the international trade of agricultural products in Japan in the future.
What is the "seedling correction method"
Japan's Seedling Amendment Act was formally implemented on July 8, 2003. The focus of the revision is to expand the scope of punishment and increase the intensity of punishment. The first is to expand the scope and object of punishment. The original law only punishes enterprises and individuals who illegally breed, sell, import and export seedlings for protection, and does not apply to the purchase of seedlings for cultivation and sale of harvests. The revised Seedling Law not only punishes organizations or individuals who cultivate and sell protected seedlings, but also targets enterprises or individuals who purchase and cultivate protected seedlings, sell and import and export their harvest.
Secondly, the new "seedling law" has increased the punishment for infringers. Before the amendment, the Seedling Law stipulated that an infringing individual could be sentenced to a maximum of three years' imprisonment or a fine of less than 3 million yen, and an infringing enterprise legal person could be fined up to 3 million yen. Although the revised Seedling Law maintains the original punishment method for individual infringers, the maximum fine for corporate enterprises can reach 654.38 billion yen.
Regarding the background and significance of the Japanese government's revision of the Seedling Law, the reporter interviewed Nozawa Zhen, deputy director of the Seedling Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, who was responsible for drafting the Seedling Law. He said that in recent years, many excellent varieties developed and cultivated in Japan have been taken overseas by some people without authorization, and after being propagated and cultivated overseas, their harvests are re-exported to Japan, which has caused great adverse effects on Japanese agricultural production. In particular, individual Japanese importers of agricultural products take Japanese fine varieties protected by patents out of the country without authorization, entrust them to foreign agricultural groups or farmers for planting, and then export them to Japan, infringing on the rights of breeders. According to the previous law, the Japanese authorities could do nothing to breed, cultivate and sell excellent varieties after they were transferred abroad. However, although the new law cannot control the cultivation, planting and sales of the harvest abroad, if it is exported to Japan and sold in Japan, the relevant departments can impose sanctions on it. Nozawa believes that because Japanese agriculture is very weak in price competitiveness, developing and cultivating products with high added value is the most effective way to enhance Japan's competitiveness. Therefore, the Japanese government hopes to strengthen the management of Japanese fine varieties through laws, protect the interests of farmers and agricultural enterprises, and promote the development and utilization of high-quality agricultural products.
Reporter: Japan's "Seedling Law" was promulgated not long ago and has been revised this time. Is this related to the "intellectual property protection strategy" that the Japanese government is vigorously promoting recently? Nozawa affirmed. He said that in recent years, intellectual property disputes between Japan and foreign countries have been increasing. The survey shows that 27% of the 640 new varieties with "breeder's rights" in Japan have been infringed, involving flowers, fruit trees, vegetables, rice and wheat. Therefore, strictly protecting the "breeder's rights" of agricultural products is an important part of Japan's intellectual property protection strategy.
Who will be the target?
China is an important exporter of vegetables, flowers, fruits and other agricultural products. The implementation of Japan's "Seedling Modification Law" will have an important impact on China's agricultural exports to Japan, and some China enterprises that export agricultural products to Japan are likely to be unable to export their own agricultural products because of the implementation of this law.
In addition, many Japanese trading companies entrust many agricultural enterprises in China to grow green onions, spinach, ginger, garlic and other agricultural products. Therefore, some enterprises in China that export agricultural products to Japan are likely to become the objects of Japanese new variety patents "infringement" unconsciously and suffer unexpected impacts. The Japanese authorities listed a kind of "cabbage bean" imported from China as a "suspected object", thinking that it might be a stolen species of cabbage bean "Snowhand Death" cultivated in Hokkaido, and were going to apply to the customs for the import ban.
Analysts in Tokyo believe that the implementation of Japan's Seedling Amendment Law shows that the Japanese government's intellectual property protection war has been fully launched. How to deal with Japanese intellectual property protection, and how China enterprises and agricultural departments protect their own intellectual property rights have become important issues for China enterprises.