North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Richard Moyer <ramoyer@gmail.com>]

Heron,
Thanks for raising the issue of patent quandries, and how or if to respond to known violations.
At the Southern Fruit Fellowship meeting 2 years ago, John Clark and other plant breeders in Arkansas shared some of their perspective on plant introduction and patent protection.  John will be at  the NAFEX meeting this year in KY, speaking on new plant variety introduction.  John's a great one to engage on this topic.
 
University plant breeding programs are under pressure to show economic gain or benefit from at least some of their introductions.  When royalties are not returned to the programs, especially by commercial growers, there is risk of 'biting the hand that feeds us" for the plant breeders have less to show, in terms of market impact and return on investment to their superiors, who often are juggling multiple requests for land use on university research farms.  Fruit breeding programs require multiyear commitments to land and time, and this needs to be continually justified.
 
Another model, used in England and elsewhere, is for multinational ag companies to contract university or private breeders to develop superior cultivars, which are then licensed solely to contracted growers, wholesalers and restricted points of sale.  If that model of fruit development and marketing is not attractive, I suggest we encourage one another to honor with $ those models which benefit us.
Case in point: When once I proposed to a nurseryman that I buy one each of several new bramble introductions he offered, to trial them and then do limited propagation of the one(s) that did best for personal use, he refused to sell to me unless I agreed not to, for he knew the breeder and the decades of effort he'd spent on these crops. Made a lasting impression on me.   
Richard Moyer
East Tenn