Mountain Blue Orchards wins “landmark” blueberry variety rights rulings in China

Mountain Blue Orchards (MBO) has won two significant plant variety rights actions in China, brought and conducted by its China counsel, Guangdong Nuopin Law Firm (Nuopin). The Supreme People’s Court (27 September 2026, final) and the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court (30 September 2026, first instance) ruled in favor of MBO, protecting its blueberry variety Ridley 16-02, marketed as Eureka Sunrise and known in China as “L25” (PVR No. 20200064). 

According to MBO, the rulings are the first successful actions in China against blueberry nursery-propagation and cultivation infringement, and set precedents that change the risk for every unlicensed nursery, grower, landholder, and adviser dealing in protected blueberry genetics in China. It said that those who propagate, grow, or sell a protected variety without authority, or help someone else do so, can be held liable.

These cases helped establish a number of precedents, MBO said in a release. Growing a protected variety and selling its fruit can be seen as one continuous act of infringement meaning damages can be assessed on fruit profits, and fruit sales can be stopped. This closes the “selling fruit, not plants” “loophole” it said.

The Supreme People’s Court held a cooperative that supplied the land jointly liable with the nursery operator. In Guangzhou, related companies and a technical backer with an economic interest — despite claiming a “research” role — were all held jointly liable.

Both courts accepted DNA testing as proof of a blueberry variety’s identity. Once DNA shows a match, MBO said it is up to the infringer to prove otherwise.

They also accepted Nuopin’s unbroken chain – reference samples taken at MBO’s original breeding facility, notarised and authenticated through to DNA testing in China –  in full, and it can now be replicated as a proven evidentiary model. 

Legitimate-source defences failed in both cases, and where infringers withheld their records, the courts ruled against them. The courts also ordered the destruction of infringing material. 

Nuopin investigated, built and argued both cases, including the appeal to the Supreme People’s Court that brought the landholder within joint liability. MBO said these rulings are the foundation of a campaign, not the end of one and the breeder will continue to enhance its litigation programme in China alongside Nuopin.

Multiple further matters are already before the Chinese courts, and MBO and Nuopin said they will apply these precedents systematically, against unlicensed nurseries and growers, and against the landholders, related companies, and technical backers who enable them. MBO thanked Nuopin for its work in delivering these outcomes.

”A new blueberry variety takes 10 to 20 years to breed; a single cutting can copy it. Protecting variety rights protects the source of innovation for the whole industry,” MBO said in a release.

“Any party engaged in the unauthorised propagation, cultivation or sale of MBO varieties – or providing land, facilities or technical support to those who are – should cease immediately and regularise its position through an authorised MBO channel. Those who do not should expect to be pursued.”