Re: Siberian patents ?

Jan Sacks and Marty Schafer at Joe Pye Weed's Garden - Zone 5

Marty and I have been approached by someone who is interested in our 
patenting siberians for the general nursery trade.   It is a complicated 
question for us.  As gardeners, we hate buying plants which say we can't 
propagate them.  Of course this requirement is directed at people in business 
and not home gardeners, but it always feels like the patent police are going 
to come down and get us for dividing a plant which needs dividing to survive. 
 As hybridizers, we put many hours and valuable field space into our iris 
breeding and the monetary return is minimal in comparison.  We do it for the 
joy, but without some financial support we could not justify the space and 
time since we make our living from our land (growing cut flowers).   Irises 
are introduced at high prices because in a short time they can be propogated 
and sold by others.   On the other hand, patenting is not a sure way to make 
money.  The royalties per plant are very small and patenting is not cheap.  
It can cost close to $2000 per cultivar unless we learn the legal ins and 
outs and do the paperwork on our own - then maybe only $1000.  So we would 
have to be confident that someone will propagate and promote our patented 
iris so that we would make back our investment, no less a profit.  Only a 
small number of cultivars would be patented.  And they would be directed at a 
totally different market than we currently sell our new introductions.  It 
would make new and different siberians available to the general gardener 
through garden centers.  We will see how it goes.

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