Graham will be at IPM from Wednesday to Friday inclusive. Contact us now if you would like to meet there.

Plants For Europe has reached agreement with ProVaR (Protected Varieties Limited) so that ProVaR may offer selected varieties from the PFE portfolio to growers in the UK and Ireland.

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.

The Fleuroselect organisation has recently held a conference to discuss the relative merits and conflicts between utility patents for plant technologies and “traditional” plant variety rights. You can read the press release here.

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.

There are several reasons why you might want a procedural representative to act on your behalf to file applications for Community Plant Variety Rights. The most common of these is the requirement of the CPVO for applications to be filed by a person or business that is domiciled within the 27 member states of the European Union. Alternatively, you may simply wish to engage an experienced practitioner so that you don’t have the hassle!

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.

Congratulations to Paul Roman and the rest of the organization team at the revamped Southern Growers Exhibition held today at Roundstone Nursery. By my reckoning, it was a great success, with many more exhibitors and vastly increased numbers of visitors. For me, in recent years, this events only merited attendance because it was local – this time, there were some really useful contacts to be made and renewed, which is the mark of a truly useful event.

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) is set to announce that, from January 2010, the Gazette and most other publications will be available in electronic format only and will be free of charge. This will be a boon to those of us who have found purchasing a subscription to the paper format of the Gazette to be difficult, as obtaining EU publications is limited to only two resellers in the UK who are not always as helpful as they might be (I’ve been awaiting an email response from TSO for, oh, about six months now).

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.