Copyright on plants?
 

I just bought a heather today, and noticed on the label the phrase "this
plant may not be propogated without permission"

Is this a copyright thing? Is it enforcable?

What if the flowers produce seeds? Will the supplier come around and sue my
plant?

Bob

Copyright on plants?
 

Bob Smith24/3/04 3:18
I just bought a heather today, and noticed on the label the phrase "this
plant may not be propogated without permission"

Is this a copyright thing? Is it enforcable?

What if the flowers produce seeds? Will the supplier come around and sue my
plant?

Bob


It's Plant Breeder's Rights. I don't think you need to worry about it as a
private gardener. While absolutely strictly you shouldn't propagate the
plant, those Rights are to protect the breeder from commercial developers
growing plants in their thousands, not the amateur giving a small cutting to
a few friends. And of course, the latter is not enforceable while the
former certainly is. Quite a lot of money can be involved so it's in the
breeder's interests to enforce PBR if he finds a commercial nursery
transgressing them. It happened to my husband and his agent was on to it
quite quickly, I can tell you!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

Copyright on plants?
 

On Wed, 24 Mar 2004 15:33:53 +0000, Sacha
wrote:

Bob Smith24/3/04 3:18
I just bought a heather today, and noticed on the label the phrase "this
plant may not be propogated without permission"

Is this a copyright thing? Is it enforcable?

What if the flowers produce seeds? Will the supplier come around and sue my
plant?

Bob


It's Plant Breeder's Rights. I don't think you need to worry about it as a
private gardener. While absolutely strictly you shouldn't propagate the
plant, those Rights are to protect the breeder from commercial developers
growing plants in their thousands, not the amateur giving a small cutting to
a few friends. And of course, the latter is not enforceable while the
former certainly is. Quite a lot of money can be involved so it's in the
breeder's interests to enforce PBR if he finds a commercial nursery
transgressing them. It happened to my husband and his agent was on to it
quite quickly, I can tell you!

It's one of the main issues of Monsanto's GM products.