Spanish Farmer Wins Supreme Court Case Against Moroccan King Over Mandarin Patent

The Spanish justice had seized the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) last October to help it determine whether the company Nadorcott Protection, owned by the Moroccan royal family, still had the right to sue the company José Cánovas which had exploited its protected mandarin variety without a license, or whether this right was prescribed after the expiration of the three-year period set by European regulations.

To read: EU Court Sides with Spanish Farmer in Mandarin Dispute Against Moroccan King

The European Court had ruled in favor of José Cánovas, considering that the limitation period must begin to run from the moment the license holder discovered the illegal exploitation and identified its author, and not at the end of it, recalls La Verdad. The Nadorcott Protection company brought the case before the Spanish courts in November 2011, even though it was informed of the illegal exploitation by José Cánovas of this variety of mandarins and had even sent him a formal notice in 2007, a year after he had launched his production on a plantation in Alhama de Murcia.

To read: EU Court Rules in Favor of Moroccan Royals in Mandarin Variety Dispute

Based on this decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the claims of the Moroccan royal family are null and void and that no legal action can be taken against the Murcian farmer who welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision "with great enthusiasm". "I sensed that the Supreme Court would rule in my favor, as the CJEU did. But given the context, I wasn’t reassured either," he said.