Taiwanese farmer ordered to pay TWD520,000 as damages for illegally cultivating new pear variety

　A fruit farmer, LIU Shen-Quan (hereinafter referred to “Liu”) has been engaged in cultivating Taiwanese native pears for twenty years and selected improved varieties from 2000 and more crossbred ones.  His remarkable achievement is that Liu has successfully developed and cultivated a new hybrid pear variety named “Baodao Ganlu” by crossbreeding Taiwan’s native pear, “Pear Taichung 2” and “Hsin Shing Pear”, a hybrid between Taiwanese pears and Japanese pears.  In Taiwan, there have been 200 and more farmers who have acquired a license for this new pear variety by paying TWD50,000.  However, 600 and more farmers are growing the new variety by grafting the patented scions of the new pear variety without due authorization and licensing, and at least 1,000 hectares of land are illegally cultivated with the new pear variety.  For this circumstance, Liu filed an infringement lawsuit against a fruit farmer, WANG Min-Yuan two years ago and this case ended up in Liu’s favor with Liu being awarded TWD520,000 and 5% interest thereof as damages.  This case is appealable.  (Released 2021.02.05)  

/CCS