Re: Tattoo

There is no standard royalty.  The patent prohibits vegetative propagation and it is up to the patent holder to decide when, how, and if the plant can be propagated.  One reason the patent holder may object even if you agree to pay is that the right to propagate may have been given to one grower exclusively.   I doubt that most patent holders would want to bother making agreements for the propagation of 25 plants.

Chick

"Lesch, Norman A." wrote:

 

Joe, Chick and any others that care about plant patents,

I have heard from other growers that they will not carry patented plants because they can't propagate them to sell. But, if you propagate them, can you just send a royalty to the patent holder and sell them? That way you don't have to sell the plant as a single plant as you received it. If in 5 years you take the original H. 'Tattoo' you bought and split it into 20 single divisions, couldn't you just send 20 x "$X" to Tony Avent and avoid being prosecuted? Does anyone know what the royalty, $X, is for each plant sold? I can't imagine that Tony would object to receiving checks in the mail. I can see why growers might shy away from this as it is more paperwork and less money in their pocket. I wonder if one could buy a "blanket" royalty where you pay, say $100 to the patent holder and then the grower can naturally propagate as many as they like. Once these plants are sold, the propagation is protected by the patent once again.

Just some rambling thoughts....

Thanks!

Norm Lesch
Manchester, MD

      -----Original Message-----
      From:   halinar@open.org [h*@open.org]
      Sent:   Thursday, September 23, 1999 11:57 AM
      To:     hosta-open@mallorn.com
      Subject:        Re: Tattoo

      Chick:

      >Strange as it may seem, there are many growers who honor a patent
      >simply because it is the right thing to do.

      That is true.  But then a lot of people don't rob banks because it is
      the right thing to do.  However, with a hosta or anything else that
      may be patented, the person growing/propagating the plant has to know
      it is patented.  If you buy a hosta at a local nursery it may not have
      a tag that says it is patented.  Also, many plants are patented with a
      different name, or even just a number, then what they are sold under,
      so it can be difficult to look at granted patents and know a
      particular plant is actually patented. Thus, it is easy for someone to
      not know a plant is patented.  As a patent holder you have to make
      sure that the plants that do get sold by either you or licensed
      growers are clearly stated as being patented.  Since most hostas are
      not patented, its easy to assume that any hosta in your yard is also
      not patented.  My main commerical crop is daylilies and few daylilies
      are patented.  However, I do respect patents and just will not grow
      any patented daylilies.

      Joe Halinar

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