Victoria Clare29/4/04 3:10
3

Sacha wrote in news:BCB6C1E8.1A522%
:

Would you allow someone else use of them or your expertise and training
without payment?

Actually, yes, I do, often. Not to the point of destitution, but to the
point of helping someone out. So do you, I've noticed ;-).

Yes but that does remain within the realms of *our choice*.

I don't think the racehorse argument stacks up: you can't copy a racehorse,
you can only charge stud fees (I think that's more like selling seed).

Well, we talk about 'mother plants' when we talk about breeding and
propagating plants under PBR and in that sense, there's little difference.
The breeder of the plant/horse either finds a lucky sport/foal or carefully
crossbreeds two plants/horses to get the desired result.

I didn't mean to say that Hill House should not register its plants, and
certainly not to imply that running a nursery was free or even cheap!

I said that patenting a living thing is a different matter to patenting a
gadget.

I think that there we shall have to disagree.

I still think that.

As cloning becomes more widespread and more and more information of every
type moves into the private domain, I think we are going to see this sort
of debate more often!

I'm sure. Nick has raised a very interesting point, for example. But
cloning animals or plants is not the same as setting out to breed (by X-ing)
new varieties.
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)