Re: Tattoo
Again, I am not a lawyer, but it is my understanding that the patent holder
must prove damages. It would hardly be worth Tony's time to prosecute
someone for giving a H. Tattoo away to a friend (and not like Tony anyway).
However, if I were to propagate 10,000 of these plants he would be justified
to stop me from doing it. The Hosta patents would primarily be aimed at TC
labs.
Chick is right, there is something called ethics involved here.
Jim Anderson
----- Original Message -----
From: <halinar@open.org>
To: <hosta-open@mallorn.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 1999 2:22 PM
Subject: Re: Tattoo
> Clyde:
>
> >In respect of hostas, I should think that a patent holder would be
> >somewhat at a disadvantage to sue someone for patent infringement.
> >Just imagine the burden of proof the patent holder would face.
>
> I'm not a lawyer, but I do believe that there are some provisions in
> the patent laws that allows non-commerical growers to dispense with
> NATURAL increase.
>
> A patent holder at best can only keep LARGE commerical growers from
> openly selling propagated stock. If I am a patent holder I can check
> various catalogs and see if someone is selling my patented plant, but
> it is a constant vigilance. I'm not sure too many hostas are worth
> the effort. Cut flower lilies are routinely patented, but there the
> royalities can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it may
> be worth the effort. If you patent a hosta YOU have to be the one who
> looks for the violators. Unless you are talking big bucks it isn't
> worth it.
>
> Joe Halinar
>
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