Acciones Penales en Defensa del Derecho de la Obtención Vegetal

Abstract

The increase of the global population and the development of science and technology has led a considerable growth of the industry involved in creating and developing plant varieties. As a consequence, following the adoption of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) on December 2, 1961, by a Diplomatic Conference held in Paris, over recent years in most countries have increasingly incorporated to their national legislation criminal proceedings in pursuit to the holder of the plant variety right, also known as breeder. In Spain, the breeder, in the event of an infringement of its right, may refer the matter to the civil or criminal courts. The latter is often reserved to the most serious and harmful infringements. The aim of this study is indeed the analysis of criminal acts against the right to peaceful existence of the owner of a plant breeder’s right, in its form of reproduction or commercialization of the material of a protected variety.