“COPERSUCAR”

• 1. As the Brazilian Law for the Protection of Plant Varieties does not regulate the limitation period for actions for the collection of royalties and does not provide for any other fallback regulation, the Civil Code applies.

• 2. However, this does not mean that the general limitation period of the Civil Code (Art. 205) should be applied, but rather that the regulations of the Civil Code must be applied. It is only where there is no specific rule in the Civil Code that the general ten-year period will apply.

• 3. The licensing agreement must describe the object and the limits of the use authorisation, the form of calculation and the method of payment of the consideration.

• 4. There is more than one way of calculating the value of the consideration for use of a plant variety: taking into account the duration of use, the area planted, or the volume, which may be in units, kilograms or litres. In the latter cases, settlement of the obligation will depend on the information provided by the licensee regarding the quantities used to make up the amount due under the agreement.

• 5. Claims for collection of net debts resulting from a private instrument lapse after the five-year period set out in Art. 206(5)(I) of the Civil Code.