Citrus News:
South Africa: Landmark case on citrus plant varieties protected with
Plant Breeder’s Rights
T
he interdict application
brought by Nador Cott Protection (NCP) & CitroGold
against Eurosemillas, StarGrow and others will be argued on
26 February 2015.
tastes delicious and has no or very
few seeds. It also comes onto the
market when no other appealing
mandarins are available and ships
well to export markets with little
wastage.
The NCP are the owners of the
Nadorcott mandarin citrus variety,
registered with Plant Breeder’s
Rights in South Africa since 2004.
The NCP and their agents in South
Africa, Citrogold, claim that the Respondents in this matter are infringing their Plant Breeders Rights by
planting a citrus mandarin variety
which they call the Tango. The NCP
and Citrogold intend to show that
the Tango is a ‘copy’ of the Nadorcott or at least essentially derived
from the Nadorcott and that the
Tango is unlawfully competing with
the Nadorcott in South Africa.
It is the position of NCP and Citrogold that the Tango is the same
as the Nadorcott or alternatively,
that the Tango variety exhibits predominantly the features of then
Nadorcott, in which case it is essentially derived from the Nadorcott
variety. Only when grown under
certain conditions, Nadorcott may
produce some seedy fruit, but in
large scale controlled commercial
plantings the fruit is seedless. The
Tango was developed by scientists
at the University of California Riverside by exposing the Nadorcott
plant material to irradiation in order
to bring about changes (or mutations) in the Nadorcott. By irradiating the Nadorcott, the ability of the
Nadorcott to produce seeds, when
exposed to pollinators such as bees
and pollen from other mandarin
varieties, is impaired.
The Nadorcott is very popular
amongst consumers in South Africa
and the European Union and is one
of the most successful citrus varieties in the world. The Nadorcott is
also known to consumers in South
Africa as ClemenGold™, Sweet C™
and other brand names. The farmers who have invested in planting
the Nadorcott are earning a good
return. From a consumer’s point of
view, the fruit has an excellent dark
orange colour, is easy peeling,
Eurosemillas, Stargrow and others
are proceeding to sell and plant the
Tango w