Plant Variety Rights in Action

By Espinosa Bellido Abogados

Bloom Fresh, a company specializing in the development and improvement of fruit varieties, has initiated new legal proceedings in Peru over the unauthorized propagation and commercialization of its protected varieties.

Specifically, the company filed three complaints before Peru's Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) against producers allegedly cultivating its IFG Ten variety — marketed under the Sweet Globe brand — without a license. 

A Systematic Enforcement Approach

The company works with licensed producers and exporters to review export data and shipping records, primarily to the United States and the European Union — the main destinations for Peruvian table grapes. 

Bloom Fresh detected a shipment of Sweet Globe grapes that had allegedly been labeled as the Sugarone variety. The deliberate mislabeling of a protected variety to evade detection compounds the intellectual property violation with potential trade fraud implications, and the matter is being referred to both INDECOPI and Peru's National Agricultural Health Service (SENASA).

Bloom Fresh has identified more than 15 nurseries potentially involved in the illegal propagation of protected varieties and is preparing legal action against them. The nursery segment is particularly critical in plant variety enforcement: unauthorized propagation at that stage allows infringing material to enter the supply chain at scale, making subsequent detection and remediation far more difficult and costly.

These proceedings follow earlier enforcement actions in Peru that resulted in the removal of 110 hectares of illegally planted grape varieties — including Sweet Globe, Jack's Salute, Sweet Celebration, and Allison — and the payment of fines, which the company described as the largest eradication of illegal plants in a table grape infringement case in the country. 

Josep Estiarte, CEO of Bloom Fresh, stated that defending their intellectual property is essential to protect legitimate producers who invest in their varieties and to safeguard the integrity of the industry. 

The company has also made clear that it is investing significantly in identifying and holding accountable anyone within the value chain — nurseries, producers, or other supply chain actors — who believes they can appropriate its intellectual property with impunity.