HOW’S THAT FOR A TITLE? YOU’D BETTER READ ON

Hubbub Is a Word and It Happened This Week

I always get the best blog ideas from questions that come up during the week, and this week was no exception.  A friend of mine whom I haven’t yet met in person (interesting times, these) brought to my attention some controversy on social media about a plant patent and asked me a series of great questions about the patent itself and the hubbub around it.  (I’m surprised my spellcheck didn’t go nuts just now, but apparently hubbub is a word.)

The crux of it was this:  There was a plant patent posted somewhere on social media and certain portions of the description were highlighted.  One portion described that the new cultivar was made from an open cross between two traditional varieties.  Another highlighted portion pointed to some phenotypic features of this new variety that could apply broadly to a huge number of other varieties as well.

When you look at a plant patent, you’ll typically see several pages of detailed botanical description like “Stem morphology.—Rugose — longitudinal ribs with corky lenticels on older portions.”  Or you might see curious botanical terminology like “hirsute peduncle.”  And, after you google “hirsute peduncle” to see if that’s even real (it is) and what it looks like (it’s not as weird as it sounds), you will still be left wondering how it helps protect this particular cultivar or distinguish it from others.

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By Dale Hunt – The opinions expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of his professional colleagues or his clients.  Nothing in this post should be construed as legal advice.  Meaningful legal advice can only be provided by taking into consideration specific facts in view of the relevant law.

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  1. […] OK, I hope that explains why I don’t recommend UPOV for my Cannabis clients.  I absolutely would outside the US, obviously, and will within the US, as one option, once the USDA PVP system accepts such applications.  However, even then, there are numerous considerations that go into deciding the right way to protect a given cultivar.  I went into this in a recent blog. […]

  2. […] by the USPTO. A good review on various plant IP strategies can be seen here. Dale Hunt also writes prolifically about this topic and describes some of the financials tiers you may want to consider for each […]

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