French Intellectual Property Code

In setting the damages, the court shall take into account separately: 1° The negative economic consequences of the infringement, including the loss of profit and loss suffered by the injured party; 2° The non-material damage caused to the injured party; 3° And the profits made by the infringer, including the savings on intellectual, material and promotional investments that the infringer has made as a result of the infringement. However, the…

In the event of a civil conviction for infringement, the court may order, at the request of the injured party, that the products recognised as infringing products and the materials and implements used principally in their creation or manufacture be recalled from commercial channels, permanently removed from such channels, destroyed or confiscated for the benefit of the injured party. The court may also order any appropriate measure to publicise the…

The civil actions provided for in this chapter, with the exception of that provided for in Article L. 623-23-1, shall be barred after five years from the date on which the holder of a right knew or should have known of the last fact enabling him to exercise it.

There is no limitation period for an action for nullity of a plant variety certificate.

Where a variety which is the subject of an application for a certificate or a plant variety certificate is exploited for the needs of national defence by the State or its suppliers, subcontractors and subcontractors, without an exploitation licence having been granted to them, the court seised may not order either the cessation or interruption of exploitation, or the confiscation provided for in Article L. 623-28-1. If an expert appraisal…

Civil actions and claims relating to new plant varieties, including when they also concern a related issue of unfair competition, shall be brought exclusively before judicial courts, determined by regulation, with the exception of appeals against ministerial administrative acts, which shall come under the administrative jurisdiction. The Paris Court of Appeal directly hears appeals brought against decisions of the body mentioned in Article L. 412-1 taken pursuant to this chapter….

Any infringement knowingly committed against the rights of the holder of a plant variety certificate, as defined in Article L. 623-4, constitutes an offence punishable by a fine of 10,000 euros. If the accused has been convicted of the same offence within the previous five years, or if the offence is committed as part of an organised gang or on an online public communication network, he or she may also…

Natural persons guilty of the offence provided for in Article L. 623-32 may also be ordered, at their own expense, to remove from commercial channels the objects deemed to be infringing and any thing that has served or was intended to commit the infringement. The court may order the destruction at the expense of the convicted person or the delivery to the injured party of the objects and things removed…

Corporate entities held criminally liable, under the conditions set out in Article 121-2 of the Criminal Code, of the offence defined in Article L. 623-32 shall be liable, in addition to a fine in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in Article 131-38 of the Penal Code, the penalties laid down by l’article 131-39 of the same code. The prohibition mentioned in 2° of article 131-39 of the…

Public proceedings for the application of the penalties provided for in the preceding article may only be brought by the Public Prosecutor’s Office on a complaint from the injured party. The criminal court hearing the case may only rule after the civil court has established the reality of the offence by a decision that has become res judicata. Objections raised by the defendant to the nullity of the plant variety…