{"id":479689,"date":"2026-06-16T07:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/479689\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T07:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:20:09","slug":"rockit-global-wins-china-court-case-over-unlicensed-apple-propagation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/479689\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockit Global wins China court case over unlicensed apple propagation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Rockit Global  commercial general manager Tom Lane said the decision was a positive outcome for everyone connected to the business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThis is a good outcome for everyone with a stake in Rockit, our growers, our shareholders, and our partners in China.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cOur plant variety rights and the Rockit brand are the two pillars this business is built on, and we monitor and enforce against infringement as a matter of course.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Lane said the company was grateful to the Chinese courts for the \u201cconsidered way\u201d in which it had upheld Rockit\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cChina is one of our most important markets and we\u2019re committed to it for the long term,\u201d Lane said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Rockit commercial development manager Selina He said the decision reinforced the value of the Rockit brand for customers and consumers in China.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The case established a strong legal precedent in China, strengthening Rockit\u2019s ability to take further action against commercial-scale infringement, particularly where unauthorised growers are generating revenue from fruit sales, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">In June last year, Rockit succeeded in a separate trade \u201cdress and trademark\u201d case before the Zhejiang High People\u2019s Court, which found a local company had acted in bad faith by copying Rockit\u2019s cylindrical tube packaging and using similar marks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Rockit Global is owned by private equity companies Pioneer Capital and Oriens Capital, with Punchbowl Investments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">About 1000ha is planted in Rockit \u2013 90% of it in Tair\u0101whiti and Hawke\u2019s Bay \u2013 and the variety forms about 10% of the national crop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Rockit Global sells  licences to grow the miniature apples and markets the fruit \u2013 mostly for export \u2013 at harvest time in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">In a typical orchard, the Rockit variety is among other varieties and other pipfruit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets, the primary sector and energy. He joined the Herald in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\">Business newsletter<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rockit Global commercial general manager Tom Lane said the decision was a positive outcome for everyone connected to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[351,4463,138,1121,607,10712,1349,1437,6712,57098,61179,111,139,69,1523,4885,240542,241336,12718,59831,312,33605,36986,8982,5977,6202],"class_list":["post-479689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-apple","tag-brand","tag-business","tag-case","tag-china","tag-claiming","tag-court","tag-global","tag-legal","tag-marketer","tag-miniature","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-plant","tag-propagation","tag-reinforces","tag-rights","tag-rockit","tag-says","tag-unlicensed","tag-variety","tag-victory","tag-which","tag-wins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}