A nursery owner in the province of Lleida has been sentenced to nine months in prison, a fine of 10 Euro per day for 9 months and a payment of 4,605 Euro to Geslive, a subsidiary of the National Association of Plant Breeders, for the illegal reproduction and sale of seedlings of protected peach and nectarine trees.
The Court of Lleida, which reached this verdict on 21 September, has taken into account the appeal filed by the nursery owner to Criminal Court No. 3, thus reducing the fine from 12 to 10 Euro, although the prison sentence and the compensation remain unchanged.
The sentence has been supported on evidence from Irtagen laboratory tests, which prove that the nursery had seedlings of Millarflat flat peach and Garcica, Nectalady and Nectarcrisp nectarine trees.
Geslive said in a statement that the verdict confirms the validity of the genetic analysis and the nursery's responsibility behind the possession and sale of illegally reproduced plants.
The association insists that the reproduction and possession for sale of protected plant materials without a license are crimes against intellectual property, punished by the Penal Code with up to three years in prison.
The average cost of developing a new plant variety is of more than two million Euro and it takes at least ten years before they are officially marketed.
Violations of the rights on protected varieties are frequently registered with many fruit varieties, like blueberries, peaches, nectarines, almonds and apricots.
