That's a great question. I'm not certain, but if I understand it right, a breeder needs to obtain the appropriate patent protection for each part of the world they want to protect their plant. So, Plant Breeders Rights granted in Europe may not grant any protection here in the US if a US patent (Plant Patent, Plant Variety Protection, or Utility Patent) isn't obtained. A friend who has a US plant patent on a Heliopsis has had to apply for protection in Canada as well as Europe to have protection in those areas.

I'd love to learn more about this issue.

Sincerely,
David

P.S. It seems that if anyone is getting rich off the patenting process it definately is the lawyers!!!

If you correctly copied the text from the West Lupine Company, I take them to mean that their breeding program is so good that no one else has Lupine hybrids as fine as they do. If you were to start your own program then their seed or plant stock might give you the best beginning breeding stock. As to buying their stock plant, if your intention is to propagate them vegetatively then you had better make sure they are not patented. If an individual stock plant is not patented then it is their stupidity for releasing this material. I maybe wrong but I know of no laws that give a plant breeder the rights to offspring from parent stock that they sold, if so then there should be many rich orchid breeders through out the world.

Does it matter if they have plant breeders rights - providing you're not going to be breeding from them on a commercial basis, who's actualy going to know if you're doing illicit breeding or propagating from them. If I buy a plant from a supplier as far as I'm concerned I have the right to take as many offset or cuttings from it for my own uses as I want, and a few to give away too. Selling them on of course is totaly different matter
Absent

Being most familiar with daylilies, I'll speak from that background.

By the time a plant is offered for public sale, the breeder of it has had it for 3-8 years or so in blooming size. In daylilies, the time from seed to bloom in Florida is 1 season, so the breeder is 3-8 generations further along in that breeding line than the person who buys from him. Also, some of the best plants for breeding, are never offered for sale, as they perhaps excell as parents but are horrible horticulturally. This is an advantage impossible to overcome in producing the same line of breeding. only by trying something different with this plant can the purchaser get any chance.

I take that ad to mean that they think their direction in breeding is the best, and their time advantage means their current offerings are the superior ones of this type.

George