PFE has also gained much experience in prosecuting applications for European Plant Variety Rights on behalf of breeders, exemplified by three grants of EU PVR issued this month. Solidago DANSOLITLEM (Little Lemon) bred by Gabriel Danziger of Israel and Ajuga BINPARCOL (Party Colours) and BINSUGPLU (Sugar Plum), both bred by Mike Tristram of Binsted Nursery, UK, have all been granted PVR. The last two cases were both complex applications involving variegated plants that display intricate patterns of leaf colouring that required extended submissions of information to and dialogue with the Community Plant Variety Office - a process which leaves PFE well equipped to handle future applications for variegated plants, an area that can be difficult for the inexperienced.

Plants For Europe is very pleased to have joined ProVaR. Graham Spencer, company director, said: “PFE has joined ProVaR so that selected non-exclusive varieties from the PFE portfolio can be licensed by growers through the ProVaR organisation. It allows us to reach many smaller and medium sized growers effectively and will give greater access to these varieties – which will certainly increase royalty revenue for the breeders.”

From 2010-11, growers will be able to obtain licenses for ten varieties from PFE through ProVaR, including varieties of Cytisus, Lysimachia, Phlox, Phygelius, Prunella and Pulmonaria. These are all first class plants that are deserving of a wider audience.

Charles Carr of ProVaR said: “It is exciting to see the ProVaR portfolio growing each year and we are pleased to welcome another well known member of the new plant community into the organisation.”

Please note that only selected varieties will be offered through ProVaR. All other varieties will be licensed exclusively by PFE in the UK and Ireland.

This is a complicated issue and is likely to impact on “smaller” breeders more and more in the coming years. In general, it is likely to make protection costs greater for “big genera” (food and cut flower crops) and force independent breeders into more niche products. It may also make it harder to develop a profit from plant breeding in some of the important genera. On the other hand, such high costs mean that utility patents may not have applications in the smaller volume genera that are popular in the garden plant market and so may be less of barrier to breeders of these plants than to those working with major crops. The biggest problem might arise where there are “crossover” crops - for example, cut flower crops such as Solidago, Hypericum, Rosa that are also used as garden plants.

In any case, this is a topic that PFE will be monitoring in the coming months and years. At present, we feel that the breeders’ exemption coupled with effective essentially derived variety regulation offers the best compromise between protecting the interests of variety owners and those who wish to innovate and develop new varieties.

EDIT: today, the Chancellor has announced a reduced rate of Corporation Tax of 10% for profits derived from patents, effective 2013. It is not yet clear how this will work, but there is no mention of it applying to Plant Variety Rights. Two things come out of this - it is likely that small breeders will do well to become Limited Companies to make the most of this change if they derive income from patents. But those that use only the PVR system are likely to be further disadvantaged.

PFE is attempting to coordinate lobbying of the government to get Plant Variety Rights included in the so called Patent Box legislation bringing in the new reduced rate of tax. Since plant varieties are excluded from the patent system, to exclude PVR would be discriminatory. If you wish to support us or can help in any way, please contact us.

Plants For Europe Limited offers a complete procedural representative service for breeders and their agents or lawyers. We have considerable experience of successfully filing applications for Community PVR including some quite challenging applications for plants with variegated foliage. We can assist not only with the application, including submission of forms and supporting documentation, but also with arranging safe and timely delivery of plants for DUS examination and ensuring that appropriate CPVO fees are paid on time.

If you would like to know more, including details of our (very reasonable!) fees for this service, then please contact us.

The Gazette is the official record of all applications and grants of Community PVR. Only the Gazette acts as the official record - the online database at the CPVO website carries disclaimers to state that it would not be admissable as evidence and should not be regarded, therefore, as entirely accurate.

The only publication that will continue to be available in paper format will be the annual report. This, and most other publications, have been available in electronic format for some time. Check the EU Bookshop and enter "Community Plant Variety Office" as search term.

From January, the Gazette will be available from www.cpvo.europa.eu as PDF format documents.

UPDATE: further strikes are planned for 72 hours from Thursday 29 October.

UPDATE: new strikes announced for 6 and 9 November. - NOW CALLED OFF (hurrah!)

I wonder if it might have applications in protecting against the illegal trade in PVR- or patent-protected plants, particularly if it was married with some sort of simple hand-held equipment which allowed people with limited training (perhaps customs officials) to sample consignments of plant material. But I also wonder how much information can be contained in the limited fragments of DNA that they are using (it might be good enough to identify plants at species level, but perhaps not good enough to identify individual varieties - Alstroemeria, for example, are notoriously similar in terms of DNA when varieties are compared) and also how long it will take to compile a comprehensive DNA database (the current Plant Finder lists over 75,000 varieties of plant available to purchase in the UK).

Both CIOPORA and the CPVO have been looking into the issue of DNA fingerprinting for protected plants - I believe that the CPVO is conducting a pilot project with the genus Rosa. Perhaps we will see more developments on this in the future.