Licensing of tc plant material

[tomkahl]

Hi,
This is for Rob or anyone else involved in tc. Reading Rob's post on the plant destruction I was wondering what is the rules and regulations involved in tc? Does it follow the same lines as a patent?
The reason I am asking is I have gone to the trouble of submitting seed for culture some years back of wild species
and was hoping that it would be distributed all over. Reading that a licensor can restrict the distribution of certain plants I
was concerned since I may submitt more material in the future.
Truly,
Tom

 

[RainforestGuy]

That's an excellent question. I understand for orchids that such contracts that bind grower and propagator to produce a given quantity and production period are determined before any propagation material is produced. If this time frame or limitation is not issued, propagators could just propagate them to oblivion. Like the N. ventricosa and rafflesiana and sanguinea currently produced by Agristarts. Eventually the market would be flooded and no one will want them. By then you'll see them at the cashier counter at K-Mart for a dollar.
By limiting the quantity and time frame you can allow this plant to be available, and at the same time not worry that the plant you buy today for $25 will eventually sell for a dollar somewhere else later.
I assume its similar for nepenthes, especially for a rare or limited clone.

A patent is something altogether different. It registers the item and allow a royalty to be paid to the grower or developer of the strain or hybrid. A patent is for a limited time. hence, the Hoya carnosa cultivars by Cobia@ were once sold exclusively by mail orders, soon grew into an empire. today its freely propagated from cuttings without any penalty.

MM

P.S. Please elaborate on this topic.

 

[Borneo]

Tom, Michael is correct IMO, this is nothing like a patent.

What happened to me is that I foolishly and over-trustingly signed an agreement with the supplier of the original clones which included a clause authorising him to pull the plug any time he wanted. 'Pulling the plug' in this case meant stop producing the cultures, return some to the licensor, destroy all remaining stock including (and boy this hurt) nursery stock. I took legal advice on this and was told I didn't cave to comply with such a one-sided contract, especially as it hadn't been witnessed and was signed at a time when I had little knowledge of the tissue culture process & etc. Anyway, rather than risk problems I went ahead and did as I was asked. Most of the species were aailable in TC as differnt clones from other sources anyway.

A patent would be a different matter altogether. In the case of these clones I ahd to destroy, for example one of them is the exact same clone as the N. ventricosa produced by Agristarts and the licensor no doubt has a different agreement with them which I assume is still in force.

Now none of our clones are prodced under a royalty arrangement and in most cases we have improved on quality of clones by selection of specific clones and selective breeding of carefully chosen parent plants. That's much more fun!

 

[RainforestGuy]

Dear Rob
What really hurts most is that your time and money went into the production stage portion that got destroyed. Having to destroy tc material is one thing, but to destroy material that starts to look like a nepenthes plant hurts especially more!

I hope you get compensated for this in other ways. I always believe in what you give, you get back tenfold! Perhaps this may be a Blessing in disguise.

Michael