Mericloning Neos/ Illegal or Culturally Prohibited

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

With plants, if they are not patented/patent-pending, you can propagate them. When you buy the plant from a reliable grower, it is always indicated whether it is patented/patent-pending or not. I try to avoid buying patented plants but I have grown sweet corn and a few other annual veggies and fruits that have been patented. I have not bought perennial plants that are patented, though, as I fear I would forget and give away a piece.

"Giving away a piece" is not a patent violation. Selling it would be.

[Orchid Whisperer]

The website upcounsel.com says:
"A patent offers legal recourse for plant reproduction by use of cuttings, tissue culture, or any asexual means without the written permission or licensing by the inventor. Possession of illegally propagated plants of a patented species is infringement, even if the reproduction is inadvertent."

This says nothing about selling.

[orchidsarefun]

I wonder what the situation would be if the plant was acquired before the patent was registered and I'm certain patent pending can't be an open-ended years long process.
Also a patent registered in Japan won't be valid unless it was also registered in the USA?

[Leafmite]

Originally Posted by Ray

"Giving away a piece" is not a patent violation. Selling it would be.

If you grow corn that is patented, you cannot even save the offspring to plant the next year. When I grew it, they had specific instructions about not planting other types of corn nearby, etc. And, yes, giving away pieces is definitely not permitted.

Personally, I do not think that living things or parts of living things should be patented. Now that we are getting close to genetically altering people to avoid genetic illnesses, this precedent might get a little weird.

Farmers often save seed to use the following year. Apparently, according to a lawsuit won against farmers, you cannot save the seed from patented varieties to use the following year, even if they are no longer have the pure genetics of the original seed. This means that, every year, farmers need to buy new seed.

[orchidsarefun]

Patents protect against commercial exploitation. In practice no patent owner will go after random people supplying friends with cuttings as the cost of legal action, combined with reputational risk for going after the "small guy", far outweighs any benefits.
It still amazes me that there are programs on the internet that allow the user to download movies and TV programs ( at HD quality ) free of charge. In certain countries this is an acceptable practice and done with impunity, literally by Everyman on the street.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Re: getting caught.

It is like fishing without a license. You have a low chance of getting caught. This does not make it any less illegal, and in the event that someone cares enough to do so, you could still be prosecuted if you are caught.

The law does not distinguish between commercial and non-commercial propagation.

[Ray]

I own lots of things that are patented. Once I own it - unless I have some sort of agreement in place with the patent holder - I can do anything I want with it. I learned that while getting some 80+ patents of my own in the chemical industry and associated equipment. To avoid modification or copying of our equipment, we never sold it, but leased it to our customers as part of the chemical they consumed using it.

Farmers who purchase patented crop seed likely have some similar sort of agreement built into the purchase transaction.

I have read about pollen from patented grains making it onto adjacent properties, with the patent holder suing the poor recipient farmer to prevent him from using the new genes, but I believe such companies "win" those cases because they have deep enough pockets to keep the farmer tied up in court until they're bankrupt...

[orchidsarefun]

It's also illegal to exceed posted speed limits. How many people has that stopped?
Keep in mind that hundreds of thousands of outlets sell plants. When you buy a patented plant are you supplying your name and address and registering the plant? Of course not. However, if you were to start selling hundreds of plants that look exactly the same as a patented plant, you're asking for an enquiry. Patented plants are usually more expensive than similar plants. You are indirectly paying towards the research and development cost.
Giving a cutting to a neighbor may be illegal in a true interpretation of the "law" but...... I do admit to exceeding posted speed limits at times.

[AnonYMouse]

How does one patent a SPECIES?

[orchidsarefun]

Originally Posted by AnonYMouse

How does one patent a SPECIES?

USPP27443P3 - Medinilla hybrid plant named ‘ROYAL PEARLZ’
- Google Patents

Technically they are calling it a created hybrid

Plant Patent: Everything You Need to Know