EU Court Rules in Favor of Moroccan Royal Family’s Mandarin Variety Protection

Nadorcott Protection and Eurosemillas are trying to have each other’s protection removed, which gives their mandarins a differential value and allows them to collect substantial royalties. Hence the legal battle they have been waging for about fifteen years. While Nadorcott Protection and its representative in Spain, the Club of Protected Plant Varieties (CVVP), seized the commercial court of Valencia in 2008, Eurosemillas, for its part, brought the case before the Court of Justice of the European Union (GCEU) in 2016, reports El Español-Invertia.

The Cordoba company requested the cancellation of the protection of Nadorcott, citing suspicions of fraud. This week, the EU court handed down its verdict, dismissing Eurosemillas and confirming the protection of the Nadorcott mandarin. Eurosemillas is considering the possibility of appealing this decision. This legal battle "has no direct economic stake for Eurosemillas," its representatives assure. "It is not the case that if the protection of Nadorcott falls, Eurosemillas will receive royalties from them. This will not happen," they insist.

In its application before the Valencia court, Nadorcott Protection requested the withdrawal of the protection of the Tang Gold variety, considering that it is a "copy" of Nadorcott, a variety protected in the EU since 2004. If the court rules in favor of Nadorcott Protection, Eurosemillas will have to obtain prior authorization from it to produce this variety. Moreover, the company belonging to the Moroccan royal family could claim royalties from Eurosemillas.

For its part, Eurosemillas refutes these allegations, stressing that Tang Gold is a variety produced in the laboratory of the University of California, after ten years of research and investment. It is a seedless mandarin that is successful with consumers and citrus growers, says the Cordoba company, denouncing a defamation campaign by Nadorcott Protection, which fears losing the monopoly with the arrival of Tang Gold on the market.