North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Thomas Olenio" <tolenio@sentex.net>]

Hello,

The one time I contacted a patent holder, wanting to pay them a royalty  
for a small number of plants, for my own personal use, they were perplexed  
how I found them, and had no idea what to charge for a royalty fee.

That was my experience.

Later,
Tom

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 11:26:19 -0500, Richard Moyer <ramoyer@gmail.com>  
wrote:

> 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



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