<story><title>How can I tell if a plant given to me is patented?</title><url>http://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/3808/how-can-i-tell-if-a-plant-given-to-me-is-patented</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tptacek</author><text>For what it&apos;s worth:&lt;p&gt;When people think about plant patents, they&apos;re usually thinking of the Monsanto suits. I don&apos;t know that there aren&apos;t crazy patent trolls out there suing gardeners, but as far as Monsanto is concerned, I don&apos;t think gardeners have much to worry about.&lt;p&gt;If you read the Monsanto suits that have been published, the behavior Monsanto pursues is planting unlicensed Roundup-Ready seeds and then spraying them with glyphosphate-based (&quot;Roundup&quot;) herbicides. You can spray Roundup without a patent license. You can probably plant RR crops without a license. But if you do both (commercially, at least), Monsanto sues.&lt;p&gt;The point of RR seeds is that they resist Roundup, which is a broad-spectrum herbicide that will kill non-RR crops. In the commercial suits, it becomes tricky to argue that you planted RR crops unwittingly when you are later shown to have sprayed them with an herbicide that would have certainly ruined your harvest but for inbred RR resistance.&lt;p&gt;The patent they have on the whole RR system may be totally invalid; I&apos;m hoping to have the presence of mind not to end up litigating that point. I&apos;m just saying, the likelihood of accidentally become a lawsuit target appears like it might be overblown in some ways.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nkurz</author><text>&lt;i&gt;When people think about plant patents, they&apos;re usually thinking of the Monsanto suits.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most people might, but those posting patent questions to a gardening forum are a special breed.  The patent question comes up often for those interested in propagating fruit trees.  Groups that exchange varieties of plants and desire to obey the law often have complicated self-policing policies.  For example, here are guidelines for a local chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers association:  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.crfg-redwood.org/patented-fruits-list-2013.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.crfg-redwood.org/patented-fruits-list-2013.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;I&apos;m just saying, the likelihood of accidentally become a lawsuit target appears like it might be overblown in some ways.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perhaps, but for many the question of risk is distinct from the question of legality.  The questioner wasn&apos;t asking whether he was likely to be caught, but how to determine ahead of time if one is behaving legally.  It&apos;s not clear if this is even possible.  Does intent matter?  One of the major breeders of new fruit varieties in the US asserts that it does not:&lt;p&gt;&quot;Asexual propagation of patented plants (including any of its parts such as leaves, buds, cuttings, seed, fruit or pollen) is strictly prohibited without the written authorization of the patent holder or the patent holder’s agent. Possession of improperly propagated trees of patented varieties (such as the receipt of trees, budwood or graftwood from unauthorized sources) constitutes infringement, even if an illegal propagation was inadvertent.&quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dwnbeta.com/plant-patents-and-trademarks&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.dwnbeta.com/plant-patents-and-trademarks&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>How can I tell if a plant given to me is patented?</title><url>http://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/3808/how-can-i-tell-if-a-plant-given-to-me-is-patented</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tptacek</author><text>For what it&apos;s worth:&lt;p&gt;When people think about plant patents, they&apos;re usually thinking of the Monsanto suits. I don&apos;t know that there aren&apos;t crazy patent trolls out there suing gardeners, but as far as Monsanto is concerned, I don&apos;t think gardeners have much to worry about.&lt;p&gt;If you read the Monsanto suits that have been published, the behavior Monsanto pursues is planting unlicensed Roundup-Ready seeds and then spraying them with glyphosphate-based (&quot;Roundup&quot;) herbicides. You can spray Roundup without a patent license. You can probably plant RR crops without a license. But if you do both (commercially, at least), Monsanto sues.&lt;p&gt;The point of RR seeds is that they resist Roundup, which is a broad-spectrum herbicide that will kill non-RR crops. In the commercial suits, it becomes tricky to argue that you planted RR crops unwittingly when you are later shown to have sprayed them with an herbicide that would have certainly ruined your harvest but for inbred RR resistance.&lt;p&gt;The patent they have on the whole RR system may be totally invalid; I&apos;m hoping to have the presence of mind not to end up litigating that point. I&apos;m just saying, the likelihood of accidentally become a lawsuit target appears like it might be overblown in some ways.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jfim</author><text>Interesting, I hadn&apos;t thought about the fact that there&apos;s only an advantage to RR crops if you&apos;re actually spraying Roundup and that spraying Roundup on a crop would somewhat imply that you&apos;re aware that you&apos;re planting a RR crop.&lt;p&gt;You seem to be aware of plant patents; are those frequent and commonly litigated in the US? I have only heard about the Monsanto stuff and was curious about how patents affect that industry.</text></comment>