The only plants I know of that were patented were the Optimaras and the Rhapsodies.

Many years ago a person selling plants had to pay about 3 cents per tag to Optimara in order to sell these hybrids.

When a lady from Optimara came onto a forum I happened to be on, she said the patents apply only to those people who make a living selling plants. Individuals who enjoy spreading the leaves or plants or selling them was all right.

Now, the patents on most if not all the Optimaras and the Rhapsodies has grown out. No patents apply. You can feel safe and honest when selling these hybrids.

Nancy

Nancy,
I was absolutely DELIGHTED to see you posting again. There's not a week that goes by that I don't reference your book.

Welcome Back!

A few weeks ago, someone mentioned that I might want to check the patent rights on the Optimara Space Babies...and inferred that I *might* be in violation if I was sharing 75 of these plants at a local plant sale.

I wasn't able to find anything conclusive to support or deny that suggestion.

Any thoughts?

Dora

A patented plant of any type has to have a registered name first. Then this registerd name can get a patented number. The Pattend plant can be replicated by any manner anytime after 10 years of its patern recieving date by anyone. Nobody is allowed to change its registerd name at anytime. ( not a clue to what happens to "a sport of" in type plant)

Patten laws (laws are not rules) protect the newer registerd plants as a fairness to it's original hybridizer and allows them to make a fair profit from there product

In a nut shell if your AV is over 10 years old in patend receiving date then have a good time propergating them and selling them as the same reg name AV

However there are folks out there who know this law too and will as Dora said " protest "

Dora: If someone tells you you might be in "violation" it is your obligation to provide them any and all proff needed stating your not in "violation" You can and should print the patten laws for anyone to read off the offical pattern laws sight, dont worry the protester has there glasses lol
Yes sharing, giving away, selling even propergating is a violation of patern rights for 10 years. Include the link on your printings Gooogle the plants in question

Example: You would need 76+ print outs for the 75 Optimara Space Babies you where "sharing" because each person who took one needs that printout for there protection as well. The last ones are yours to show those who wish to protest or other officals. The extra copies protect you as you where at a show. Even a certified/licenced dealer would need these print outs if they where present at the event as the licence only covers one address usually visable at any garden center in a framed document as it is here it's the law.

There seems to be a great deal of confusion regarding plant patents on AVs. As Nancy has said, these are mostly Holtkamp varieties - Optimara and Rhapsodie. US patent law prohibits asexual propagation (cuttings, leaves, etc.), sale, or use by *anyone* as long as the plant is under patent protection. What a former Optimara employee had to say about this does not change US law. It may or may not accurately reflect Optimara's future policy whether or not to prosecute amateurs who illegally propagate their plants. In any case, propagating patented plants without license to do so is a form of stealing, just like making a pirate copy of a CD. For myself, I choose not to do this out of respect for hybridizers who sell patented plants for a living.

A plant patent currently lasts 20 years (not 10) from the date of the patent application. Most Optimaras and Rhapsodies either were never patented or patents have expired. This can be easily checked by going to Google patent search. Type "African violet plant EverGrace" - or whatever the name is. Don't type Rhapsodie or Optimara as part of the name. This is a trademark and not part of the patented name of the plant. You will see that the patent application for EverGrace (and many other space babies - search by individual name) was filed in 2002. Therefore, EverGrace will be under patent protection until 2022.

Read about plant patents here:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/plant/

Here is a link that might be useful: Google Patent Search

Way to cool thank you for the links You said it like a pro I have other plant tags that indicate ten yrs for asexual division that's where I was wrong :( Your right even the tags cant give me permission to break the laws ! My error on the numbers I will save them links.
People Helping People
Wes

Wes -

I'm glad you found the links helpful. I hope people check the patents and propagate the many Rhapsodies and Optimaras that are in the public domain. They are great plants. It is hard to get one with an accurate name tag. Confusion over patents is probably one reason they are hard to find.

QC

If you have Optimaras you can also check their website to find when the plant was registered and whether or not it was patented. As far as I can tell Optimara doesn't patent many of their plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Optimara's Website

On the optimara site there are new varieties that say patent number: and its blank....does this mean there is no patent?

who knows - patent can be pending- or they decided not to patent these varieties...

I just want to clarify... A named and registered variety is not necessarily a patented variety. Correct?

Correct.

Meg,
A plant is named by its hybridizer and it is registered with the African Violet Society of America. A plant is registered, mainly, to be eligible to compete in its class at African Violet Society shows and those of their affiliates, although there are other reasons for registering violets. Neither naming nor registering has anything to do with the patent process.

Linda

Thanks Linda

Just wanted to bump this - as it's always good to refresh our minds. I was curious about this and couldn't find anything about it online - until I googled it and suddenly this link came up. Yay for google! Was good to read this.

Thanks for the reminder. There was another discussion on the forum around that same time on this topic. It got me thinking and motivated me to contact a vendor I order from frequently, Lyndon Lyon's, on this topic. I found that once I joined a club, members were expected to share clippings. So I asked if it was ok to share leaves and cuttings on a small scale, such as a club, etc. They said it was ok.

I did not ask any other vendors, because I mostly had Lyon's plants, so that would be what I would share with others. With so many vendors struggling to produce new varieties for us each year, I felt I should give them my business as much as possible as they are struggling to make a profit. Many other hybridizers growers and vendors went out of the AV business because it was not profitable. The problem is probably more that not enough people were buying AVs and they went out of fashion, they do take a little fussiness, unlike other houseplants, and they are not seasonal, so they need year round attention. So they need a dedicated group of people to keep the hobby going. **

Recently I have been buying leaves from new hybridizers, so before I share with others, I will check with the growers if that is ok. That would be one way to introduce their plants to a club.

I used to be in the commercial sales end of another type of seasonal flowering product grown overseas. So I knew that there is a limited season, market, and number of producers who are all in competition. They go to a great deal of trouble to bring their product to market. However, most growers are mainly concerned about competition from other major growers, not individuals like ourselves. I think if there was a real problem, the AVSA would address it.

It is always wise to know what the patent and copyright laws are. Most of us don't give a second thought to sharing our seedlings, suckers, or fallen leaves. I had one Lyon's plant that produced about 20 suckers a year. It was a trailer, but I did not let it trail. I shared them all. Now the original hybridizer is not offering that plant any longer, but another nearby vendor has picked it up.

I am one of those geeky types who likes to know all the technical details of the law! To me, it is simply another fascinating detail of how these lovelies got to land on my desk and shelves.

**Another topic is the presentation and design aspects of AVs to make them attractive to newcomers. Joanne