In keeping with Italian tradition, and especially of the region that hosts our Turin office, our firm is organized to provide advice to companies engaged in the agri-food and wine sector. For companies in these sectors we offer assistance in the application of European laws and food industry standards. We have long-standing collaborations in place with experts in the various sectors (environment, hygiene, health-care, food, chemical, agricultural) complementary to our own. This enables us to adopt an interdisciplinary approach in addressing sensitive issues related to the interpretation and application of industry standards, without losing sight of technical aspects (e.g. hygiene, medical-health, chemical) and of the purposes that characterize the laws regulating the production and marketing of agri-food products (protecting human health, the environment and ensuring adequate advertising information) . ((Bruce comment: I really struggled with this sentence!!)) We have also acquired a specific expertise in the development, protection and exploitation of patents for new plant varieties. For more than a decade we have been assisting multinational companies engaged in this sector, for which we have structured complex production and marketing transactions by setting up joint ventures with Italian operators. In collaboration with our network of experts (agronomists, biologists and forensic geneticists) we also provide assistance, both in and out of court, to the breeders, producers and distributors of new plant varieties in protecting their intellectual property and in fighting the attempted usurpation or counterfeiting of their patents.