> Can I propagate or breed the Firefly Petunias?
Our Firefly Petunias are protected under patent, and as such, propagation and breeding are not permitted. These petunias are sold exclusively for personal use.
Good luck to them with that. If these plants in real life are anything like in the videos, they will be grown and sold world wide in massive amounts and nobody will give a hoot about some patent.
Patents are a major PITA even in home gardening and small-scale nurseries. People have to respect the patents because a lot of plant sales are online these days, through Etsy and stuff, and the company will sue the ever living shit out of you if they find out you are selling them, especially on any meaningful scale.
Some of the best tomato seed varieties are often patented, e.g. F1 hybrid sungold tomatoes (though reproducing those is also annoying because they are a hybrid and people generally want seeds.) There are groups[0] which try to make varieties as heirlooms (i.e. collect-and-plant) seeds that are copyleft licensed[0].
For another interesting example of recent plant developments, Norfolk Plant Sciences developed purple tomatoes and recently began selling seeds of them. Unlike other purple tomatoes (of which there are only a few) these have purple meat inside, incorporating a gene from snapdragon flowers, which also keeps the tomatoes good longer. They are patented, $20 for just 10 seeds.
Another small company, Baker Creek’s “Purple Galaxy” tomatoes, has been suspected of re-selling Norfolk's purple tomato seeds and recently stopped selling them due to 'low stock' (suspected cease-and-desist) - as a minor controversy in the gardening community last week, though allegedly Baker's Creek is a white nationalist group so YMMV on whose side you want to take there.
Outside the US neither individuals or companies care about patents when it comes to these kind of things. Sure, maybe a nation's largest plant company will respect the patents, but the local plant store won't. And they are almost the whole market.
> Another small company, Baker Creek’s “Purple Galaxy” tomatoes, has been suspected of re-selling Norfolk's purple tomato seeds and recently stopped selling them due to 'low stock' (suspected cease-and-desist)
I'm familiar with this, but it sounds like you might know more details. Do you really mean "re-selling"? I'd presumed that the accusation was that they were planning to sell a cross-bred plant that involved genes from the patented variety, but my search attempts on the tomato forums weren't very successful. Is there a better "inside scoop" story out there to be found or is it all guesswork at this point?
Definitely all guesses and assumptions, I do not mean re-selling, just cross-bred (possibly accidentally) with a patented variety. My source is just comments from random gardeners in /r/gardening[0] and I don't have any insider info. Normally I would hesitate to play the telephone game on such topics, but given the controversy about Baker Creek otherwise I don't feel too bad about it in this case.
Thanks for the link, and sorry I forgot to check back quickly. Norfolk has since confirmed in a polite manner that the Baker Creek seeds included their patented GMO genes:
Is NHP's Purple Tomato related to the "Purple Galaxy"?
We have received many questions about the purple tomato marketed by Baker Creek as “Purple Galaxy” in their 2024 catalogs. We understand from Baker Creek that they will not be selling seeds of this variety. Given its remarkable similarity to our purple tomato, we prompted Baker Creek to investigate their claim that Purple Galaxy was non-GMO. We are told that laboratory testing determined that it is, in fact, bioengineered (GMO). This result supports the fact that the only reported way to produce a purple-fleshed tomato rich in anthocyanin antioxidants is with Norfolk’s patented technology. We appreciate that Baker Creek tested their material, and after discovering it was a GMO, removed it from their website.
Also, someone in your linked thread also confirms 1) they are not F1, 2) will breed true, and 3) personal and community seed saving is allowed. I already got my packet in the mail---now just need to wait for all the snow to melt!
I'm sure if someone opened a commercial scale operation, at least in the US, they'd be able to sue, but you're right that as soon as it goes worldwide there's no practical way to prevent "piracy".
It'll be interesting to see if/how they try to lock it down genetically, I think it's possible to make the plants unable to produce seeds, but propagation is trickier. Monsanto might have some tips for them.
What if someone inserted the gene in a human embryo, but didn’t pay the royalty? Would the pregnancy have to be aborted to protect the IP, or would it be enough to cease and desist future distribution of the gene via castration? I mean it sounds harsh but the parent did violate intellectual property law.
> Can I propagate or breed the Firefly Petunias? Our Firefly Petunias are protected under patent, and as such, propagation and breeding are not permitted. These petunias are sold exclusively for personal use.
Good luck to them with that. If these plants in real life are anything like in the videos, they will be grown and sold world wide in massive amounts and nobody will give a hoot about some patent.