Jason Te Brake: Zespri Chief Executive on successful court case against unauthorised production of kiwifruit

Zespri have won a legal battle on the intellectual property front. 

They won a legal battle in Chinese courts against two defendants involved in the unauthorised production, sale, and marketing of their 'GOLD3' Kiwifruit.

Zespri CEO Jason Te Brake told Mike Hosking that China are getting better at protecting intellectual property rights. 

'It really does show that China is starting to move around protecting IP rights, not only for trademarks, but also plant variety rights.'

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A big win for Zesbury and China. So they've been successful.
They're in court against a couple of defendants involved in
the unauthorized production, sale, and marketing of that gold three
Kiwi through So the defendants ordered to remove two hundred
and sixty hectares of the stuff and pays Esbury one
point two eight million dollars in damages. Jason to break,
of course, as the Zesbury CEO, he's back with us.
Jason Morning Morning might call you very well, indeed, how

(00:20):
much of this stuff goes on legally each year around
the world.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, I guess China is the main area we see it.
There's about seven thousand hectares or just over that currently
in the ground in China. We've continue to monitor around
the world, but China is the main area we're seeing
it at the moment.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
And how do you monitor Do you have people on
the ground or does somebody dub somebody in or will.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Look you know, some of us through our distribution network,
we hear it for our customer network through other growers,
but also in China. We've obviously got a reasonable presence
on the ground there that are monitoring it, but also
just keeping open engagement with the industry to understand what's
happening here as well.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
So if the seven thousand hectares there and you've just
won two sixty, you've got to you got a way
to go.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah. I mean this is a small element of how
much is there, but it's more of a landmark in
terms of winning seed law case. And it really does
show that China is starting to move around protecting IP
rights not only for trademarks but also plant variety rights
in this capace. So it's a good move in the
right direction.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
That's what it is going to ask. So this is
precedent setting and it's got a chilling effect, as they
say in legal circles.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah. And it does also recognize that China is taking
more seriously around protecting particularly international companies IP rights and
that makes it good for investment in China going forward
as well.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
And so that's a recognition on their part that their
reputation internationally is not particularly flash in this area and
they might want to do something about it.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I think they're continuing to mature in that space. That's right.
We've seen a lot with our trademarks, so zespre trademarks
on gold trademark and they've been taking a lot of
action on that and now obviously with plant variety rights,
so it's continuing to mature in that space.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Does this cost you one point two eight million in damages?
I mean one, do you actually get the money and
do they actually rip the hec tears out? But does
that cover your costs?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
So we've also had costs that we incurred are watered
to us through this as well. So there's obviously the fine,
there's the costs incurred, but also the main thing for
us is the deterrent around pulling the fruit out of
the or the pulling the vines out of the ground
and not being able to sell the fruit good.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
We got those numbers the other day, By the way,
we haven't andren since then. I mean, you guys are
it's just laughing, isn't it. I mean, how much more
can you grow?

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Look, we've got pretty strong growth ambitions, partly because we
have got strong demand around the world for naturally nutritious
product like ours. We've also got a lot of growth
markets that we're sort of really focused at the moment.
So look, there is more growth ahead of us. We
continue to work through that, but we're going to make
sure that we keep doing it at a high value level.

(02:55):
We don't want to erode the value of our returns either.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Couldn't agree more? Nice ketch up? Appreciate it Jason to
break Who's as Esbury CEO? With us this morning. For
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