All appeals are dismissed.

The costs of appeal by the plaintiffs are assessed against the plaintiffs and the defendant.

The grounds of appeal are examined.

1. Judgment on the plaintiffs' grounds of appeal

A. As to the ground of appeal No. 1, Article 13-2(1)3 of the former Seed Industry Act (wholly amended by Act No. 11458, Jun. 1, 2012; hereinafter the same), a plant variety, the plant variety of which is registered in a foreign country, is already known at the time of designating species or genus of crops eligible for plant variety protection, even if the plant variety is already known at the time of designating such plant variety protection, if an application for plant variety protection is filed within one year from the date of designation as species or genus of crops eligible for plant variety protection, the plant variety shall be deemed new and shall be entitled to plant variety protection pursuant to the former Seed Industry Act.

Meanwhile, Article 4(3) of the same Act provides that the effect of the registered plant variety right shall not extend to the exploitation of the protected plant variety before the date of publication of the application, and Paragraph (4) of the same Article provides that a person who runs, or prepares to run, the business of exploiting the protected plant variety in the Republic of Korea before the date of publication of the application of the protected plant variety shall have a non-exclusive license as to the protected plant variety within the scope of the purpose of the business in exploitation or preparation

According to the contents and purport of the relevant provisions, and Article 34-2 of the former Seed Industry Act, a variety protection right holder has exclusive rights to exploit the protected variety for business purposes only from the date of publication of the application, and if the seeds of the protected variety were reproduced before the date of publication of the protected variety, the variety protection right of the already known variety is also subject to transfer or transfer (including display for transfer) of the reproduced seeds after the date of publication of the application.