Law can be pretty cold, unforgiving, and used in mangled ways. In terms of patents, they are miss used daily by corporations and Intellectural Property holding companys.
BTW, an IP company is one that does -nothing- more than purchase vague idea patents, then sue others (usually manufactures) that are using the idea.
Plant patents are -very- serious in the area of agriculture. Companies will spend millions of dollars developing their product and will aggressively defend it. Even if the patent is held by someone who doesn't care if it's being used, it can suddenly be sold to an IP company that does.
How can you tell somebody not to divide or make seed with their own plant??
The court system is happy to assist with the task if need be.
And what do you do with naturally occurring offspring? Kill them?
Yes, or enjoy them privately. Donations / give aways usually are fine, unless there is some type of license agreement. But even this is getting fuzzy. In some cases you can no longer sell the music / software you paid for, even if you're giving up the original copy.
*Question I throw out there for someone that knows: Does a royalty only have to be paid for once? Like flytraplady said earlier, she is being issued 200 labels. If the plant is resold 10 times but has the original 'licensed plant label' is still covered by the original royalty payment?
And for that matter...suppose someone on their own with their own plants made the same cross as say 'Red Bug' and ended up with that cultivar.
If the same ingredients are used to make the same product, you've just made a copyright infringing plant.
Suppose someone was not aware of the patent?
Ignorance is not an excuse for violating law.
If I buy a plant, I'm going to do whatever the hell I want with it as long as it's not a business. Regardless of the legality, if I pay for a plant and want to sell divisions later on (not talking about countless TC clones here), I'm going to do it.
Doesn't matter if it's you or a nursery, if you sell an illegal clone of a plant, it's still illegal and you can face the same consequences. Parallel example, download 1 illegal MP3 and the RIAA finds you, the song will cost you $750 for that .99 cent song. They don't care who you are. lol You are not above the law! (southpark character voice)
But again it all comes into question, does the copyright holder care? If they don't great! But if they do, be careful, it's not something to simply ignore because -you- don't like the idea.
Even our members here have been hurt by people ignoring copyright issues. There's a similar thread dealing with intellectual property. To a photographer who takes pictures for a living, getting the best shot of a life time only to have it lost to a magazine that makes 1,000,000 copies with no permission.... the loss is heart breaking for them and a financial loss as well.
To a grower who spends a decade of a professional career creating a unique hybrid; only to see it scooped up and sold at lowes in death cubes... the pain cause by that might be the same.