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22 March 2019Biotechnology

Strawberry breeder accuses competitor of patent infringement

A California-based company which breeds berries has filed a patent infringement claim against a competitor.

The  complaint was filed on Tuesday, March 20 at the Sacramento Division of the US District Court for the Eastern District of California by  Driscoll’s.

Driscoll’s alleged that  California Berry Cultivars (CBC) and its co-founder Douglas Shaw had infringed four of its patents for breeds of strawberries.

The filing follows earlier litigation between the  University of California, Davis and CBC in May 2017, when a jury found CBC had infringed 11 of the university’s patents. The patents covered different varieties of strawberries which CBC had used in its breeding programme, without the university’s permission.

According to Driscoll’s’ complaint, during the 2017 trial, witness testimony revealed that CBC also improperly used strawberry varieties owned by Driscoll’s.

The four varieties allegedly used by CBC are Camarillo (US number 14,771), Amesti (US number 18,878), Lusa (Us number 22,247), and Marquis (US number 23,400).

Driscoll’s said these varieties are only available to Driscoll’s’ independent farmers through a licence.

In its filing, Driscoll’s asked the court for a declaratory judgment confirming that CBC had used its patented strawberry varieties without authorisation.

According to Driscoll’s, CBC was “willfully blind” to the existence of the patents and proceeded to breed the varieties “despite an objectively high likelihood that a court would find such use to be infringing”.

Additionally, Driscoll’s said CBC had used its patented varieties for crossbreeding purposes without its permission.

It said that by doing this, CBC contravened Driscoll’s’ existing contractual restrictrictions on the use of its strawberry varieties, because it does not allow crossbreeding by third parties.

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More on this story

Americas
20 September 2017   A settlement has been reached between two former University of California, Davis professors who were found liable for infringing strawberry seed patents and the University of California regarding its strawberry breeding programme.

More on this story

Americas
20 September 2017   A settlement has been reached between two former University of California, Davis professors who were found liable for infringing strawberry seed patents and the University of California regarding its strawberry breeding programme.