Tom Bennett30/4/04 1:00
e
snip
I'm no lawyer, but I would argue that, if you breed from such a plant,
you're producing a NEW cultivar and you're not propagating (i.e. cloning,
true to type) the one parent that has PBR. The new plant, even if it's
any good (and IME most of them are not), would not be the one being sold
by the producer who has the PBR. It would probably differ markedly from
the parent(s) and you wouldn't, therefore, be affecting his/her livelihood
or future profits.
I'm not aware of PBR being applied in the same way as livestock breeding -
if it were to be, there would be armies of inspectors, having to check on
chance seedlings in everyones' gardens.
I asked Ray about this and he said that if someone used e.g. his Nemesia and
crossed it with another plant to produce a new strain they *should*,
strictly speaking, pay him a tiny percentage. He says this would be
difficult to enforce, prove and 'patrol' in his opinion. However, as far as
I know, when someone wants to register a new plant for PBR they have to give
its origins, if known, so parentage would come into that, I suppose.
Sometimes things are just discovered as sports, sometimes they're bred
deliberately.
--
Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)