On Friday, September 6, the Court of Appeal in Paris ruled in favor of Novag. This brings a very welcome end to six years of litigation brought by Dr. John Baker and Baker no Tillage Ltd against Novag SAS.
Antoine, my father Lotfi and I, as Novag founders, have always believed in this positive outcome that upholds the way we have developed our seeders.
Since 2013, our competitor has attempted to embroil us in a costly and time-consuming legal battle, with very little substantive evidence to back up their arrogant claims. Although both seeders are based on the findings of a New Zealand university research program in the 1980s, the Novag range has always been technically distinct from the “Cross Slot” range sold by Baker no Tillage Ltd, which was also based on the same research findings. Their allegations did not stand up to the extensive legal arguments and technical documentation presented by our team. Since Novag’s inception, we have relentlessly developed our own improvements and innovations.
We are pleased to have overcome another of the many challenges that the Novag adventure has presented us with so far, but we are also determined to enforce this judgment in New Zealand until we have recovered our costs in full.
I would like to thank our entire team and our partners for the immense support they have given us throughout this legal battle. With this victory in hand, we can all be proud to offer farmers reliable and user-friendly seed drills that help them improve the health of their soils, save valuable working time, improve the profitability of their farm and protect the environment and the planet.
Ramzi FRIKHA
Founder of Novag