Agri-food Law Seminar 2025
PROGRAM
12:00 – 12:45 Welcome and lunch
12:45 – 13:25 “The IP and regulatory future of NGT plant material – what will the trilogue bring us?”
The European Parliament and the Council have expressed substantially different views on the Commission’s proposal for an NGT Regulation, both in terms of regulatory requirements and patentability. This session will address the key focal points and the way forward.
by Philippe de Jong (Partner, ALTIUS)
13:30 – 14:25 “Revising the EU plant variety rights legislation – what’s at stake?”
Early 2025, the Commission announced its intention to (re-)start its assessment of the “effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU added value” of the 1994 EU Plant Variety Rights Regulation. This offers a good opportunity to hear from the two most important plant breeding associations where they see room for improvement.
by Francesca Garbato (IP & Legal Affairs Manager, Euroseeds), and Edgar Krieger (Secretary-General, CIOPORA)
14:30 – 15:10 “How NGTs can save the banana and make agriculture more resilient – a researcher’s perspective”
The banana as we know it is in peril. Banana production is dominated by a popular single genetic variety of banana, the Cavendish. However, this banana is susceptible to a pandemic of the so-called Panama disease, a fungus that is devastating banana plantations around the world. Other tropical plants are facing similar threats. A research team at the University of Leuven (Belgium), which hosts the world’s largest banana gene pool, is using CRISPR technology to develop disease resistant varieties of banana and other tropical plants. This presentation will address the challenges faced by the KU Leuven team under the current GMO legislation and the hopes and concerns that lie ahead under the future NGT Regulation.
by Devang Mehta (Professor Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, University of Leuven, Belgium)
15:15 – 15:45 Coffee break
15:45 – 16:15 “Mapping the market garden: (re-)defining competition law “relevant market” definitions in the plant breeding sector”
Relevant markets are everywhere in competition law. They put limits on what can be agreed upon in license and other transfer of technology agreements; they determine the de minimis threshold; they create suspicions of dominance; etc. They are therefore the first battleground. Recent developments shed new light on just how crop-specific these markets can be defined in the plant breeding sector.
by Beatrijs Gielen (Counsel, ALTIUS)
16:20 – 16:50 “Can EU member states still add their own regulatory flavors to a harmonized EU agrifood recipe book?”
This session dives into how EU agrifood law has largely pushed national food laws to the sidelines and asks whether member states still have any real say in the ‘agrifood kitchen’. We will uncover how the EU’s competences and the EU Court of Justice’s tough stance have left countries with little room to spice up the rules on their own – though not for a lack of trying.
by Bart Junior Bollen (Associate, ALTIUS)
16:55 – 17:25 “Horizontal enforcement of regulatory data protection in agrifood matters – changes on the horizon?”
As a distinct category of (intellectual) property, regulatory data protection helps secure returns on investments in the studies and tests required for regulatory approval. In case C-814/24, the CJEU is asked to clarify the remedies available to a protected data owner against misuse by a competitor. Bregt explores the potential implications of this case for some of data protection regimes available to the agrifood sector, including plant protection products and novel food.
by Bregt Raus (Managing Associate, ALTIUS)
17:30 – 18:30 Q&A and closing aperitif
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
When?
Friday 6 June from 12:00 until 18:30
Where?
ALTIUS Offices – Tour & Taxis, Royal Depot, 4th floor, Havenlaan 86C 1000 Brussels
Practical information
The event is free of charge and will be held in English.
If you wish to attend, please click the button below.
If you are unable to attend, feel free to forward this invitation to a colleague within your company, or provide us with your colleague’s contact details.
For questions or more practical information, please contact the ALTIUS events team at events@altius.com.
We very much look forward to seeing you soon,
The ALTIUS Agri-food team
