I am not a fan of plant patenting, but it is a necessary thing these days.

Mericloning has been around a long time, but it is only in the past 10-15 years
that a problem has arisen. The problem is largely related to Far East
commercial growers buying divisions of top plants, cloning them in quick time,
and then flooding the market before the owner of the original plant has a
chance to make a profit- or perhaps the owner did NOT want the plant cloned at
all.

Sometimes it is worse. More than once a new shoot off a plant has mysteriously
"disappeared" from a show plant that wins an award...

This is not a condemnation of the Far East- it happens here too. But orchids
are big business now and old unspoken rules of good spirit and fairness no
longer apply. The fact that most mass orchid production takes place in the Far
East is why the main issue can be traced there.

Some nurseries have disregarded US patents knowing the international reach to
prosecute is not practical, but such places are few and far between.

Noone is going to bother prosecuting those who sell divisions or keikeis.
Anyone who did would quickly be out of business as the orchid world turned a
cold shoulder- but perhaps not as the mass market becomes where the money is.
Still, that is not the intent of patenting.

The intent is to protect the value of mass cloning and that is fair. Breeders
may wait years between FCCs or breakthrough plants. 2,000 clones x $30 each is
big bucks. The growers have a right to protect their ability to cash in on that
as the originator of the plant.

I do not like patents because they are a reminder that too many people build
collections on the successful plants of others and they are also a reminder
that "doing the right thing" has been replaced by "doing the legal thing", but
so be it.

Tom.