What a crazy season! The latest spring for many, many years; the coldest May night for 15 years (minus 3 Celsius here); an election; volcanic ash; an economy like nothing we have seen before. It certainly has been a year of strange challenges and we’re not even half way through it yet!

So, Plants For Europe is taking a short holiday to recharge and refresh before the Flower Trials in week 24 (let us know if you want to meet there – Graham will be there, traveling from Breda on Tuesday afternoon, through Westland on Wednesday, Aalsmeer on Thursday and Rheinland-Westfalen on Friday). The office will be closed from 24 May to 28 May inclusive, although we hope to continue to deal with urgent emails and mobile phone calls during that period (it is crazy May after all!).

There are two news stories this week related to Plant Variety Rights – both are worth looking at.

Firstly, Marco van Noort and Blooms of Bressingham have come to agreement over a long running dispute concerning two very similar varieties of Geranium, Rozanne (Gerwat) and Jolly Bee. Horticulture Week covers the story here. As I have written in the comments at Horticulture Week, I think that this whole episode illustrates the need for more robust DUS testing during the PVR application process and, in particular, an increase in the “minimum distance” between a candidate variety and the comparator varieties. CIOPORA has a working group on DUS at the moment, so I’m hoping that the organisation will soon have a strong lobbying position to take to the CPVO and others. My impression from the recent CIOPORA conference in Seville was that breeders generally would prefer to see minimum distances increased, provided of course that we have an understanding of what the minimum distance required to pass the distinctiveness test should be.

Secondly, the long-running Schräder versus CPVO case seems finally to have reached a conclusion. IPKat reports on it here and the official record of the judgment of the European Court of Justice can be found here. This judgment will give the CPVO more confidence, I think, and reinforces its existing procedures. It also rather serves as a salutary warning for applicants that they really need to be sure of their facts! I honestly think that, if the applicant is invited to the DUS examination trial and cannot identify his own variety when growing alongside the comparator, trouble lies ahead!

Horticulture Week has picked up the story on the exclusion of Plant Variety Rights from the proposed “Patent Box”. See here.

You may have heard about social networking on the internet – you may even be a social networker yourself already. We take a dim view of jargon at PFE headquarters, but we do recognise the usefulness of a system that helps one to meet and exchange information and ideas with other like-minded people around the world. That is why we use LinkedIn which is really social networking for grown-ups, a genuine professional resource. You can see Graham’s profile here.

In particular, Graham is the owner of a “group” on LinkedIn for Plant Breeders and Agents. This group is open to any LinkedIn user who works with new plant introductions, both agricultural and horticultural. This includes plant breeders and biotechnologists, breeders’ agents (like us!), lawyers, growers of new plants, marketers and those working in support industries such as IT and specialist recruitment.

The Group now has over 300 members and has recently announced its first meeting, which will be held at IPM 2011 – thanks to generous support from the IPM organisers, Messe Essen. This will be a great opportunity for people working in our industry to meet and network, share ideas, meet old friends and make new ones.

If you are interested in joining our Group, you can find out more here.

(Note: this is the text of a press release issued by PFE today)

In the last Pre-Budget Report, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a consultation on a proposed “Patent Box” which would offer UK companies a reduced rate of Corporation Tax (10%) on all income derived from patents.

Graham Spencer, owner of Plants For Europe Limited, the Sussex-based independent plant breeders’ agent, immediately set to work to lobby the Government to include income from Plant Variety Rights in the Patent Box. Stephen Timms MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has now written to Graham Spencer, via Charles Hendry MP, to confirm that no form of intellectual property other than patent will be included.

“This is deeply dismaying”, said Graham Spencer. “Plant varieties are excluded from the patent system in the UK and European Union by law – this is the reason why Plant Variety Rights legislation exists, in order to give plant breeders protection of their property rights. To exclude Plant Variety Rights from the Patent Box is discriminatory and is a disincentive to breeders of ornamental and food crops – an area where British breeders and growers have traditionally been amongst world leaders. Plant breeding is an expensive process and inclusion would help to encourage this innovation-based industry.”

But the fight does not end here. “I will now be asking industry bodies, both nationally and internationally, to join in lobbying both this government and the next administration to include Plant Variety Rights if and when the Patent Box becomes law”, said Graham Spencer. “I also call on my colleagues in the plant breeding and intellectual property rights business to enlist the support of their MPs to apply pressure on this subject.”

PFE will celebrate its seventh birthday next Friday, 12th February. In that time, the business has developed from small beginnings to become the best independent plant breeders’ agent operating in Europe, looking after a huge range of plants from patio and balcony plants, through perennials, to a growing range of shrubs. More breeders are trusting us with their plants all the time and growers now come to PFE as a source of exciting new varieties to enliven their product range and differentiate them from the competition.

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.