I suspect we can expect to see more of this sort of thing in the future…
Does that mean they think it is possible? I understood the seed is sterile and the stems do not have the ability to root, even by tissue culture.
Maybe you got them at the ‘food bank’ and the signs had been lost…
are you still guilty if you plant the seeds?
Arrogant Corporate Empire
Patent on life.
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I don’t think these are really enforceable, it seems more of a threat than anything. To prove it they would need to show a whole chain of events proving your grape was not just dropped by a bird into your backyard. Patents are enforceable but they have a term limit and when that term is over the patent is dead.
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Yeah, seems like it would be hard to say someone made a legally binding agreement, without their signature on a contract. But then lawyers can argue just about anything…
@txpanhandle1 I didn’t find the word “sterile” in the article. I’d be curious to know more about that and how they could do so without damaging the fruit. Irradiation?
i either boycott companies that do this or i pirate their product. a company hostile to their customers doesn’t deserve to stay in business.
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Some of the comments on slashdot are amusingly dumb.
Yeah, misinformation galore… A few gems though:
“The grapes are patented. Patent law says you can’t propagate the plants. The notice is informing you of that fact, but whether or not you see the notice is not their problem. They don’t have to ‘demonstate’ anything. On the contrary YOU would have to demonstrate that you were explicitly given the right to propagate the plants, and since the only documentation you have is something that says ‘I agree to not propagate the plants’, good luck with that.”
and this one:
"This species is almost certainly a hybrid, so the seeds won’t breed true to the original. To copy these you’d want to take the attached stem, clean it well, and place slices into sterile media to grow a callus. Once you have a healthy callus you can add auxin to establish new growth points. These will grow into little rootless plants. When they get to a manageable size they can be rooted with cytokinin and grown out or if you are very careful you can graft them directly onto an existing/established rootstock that is resistant to the diseases and fungi in your area.
Yes, I did just explain how to pirate a grape.
The book I read on this topic is ‘Plants from Test Tubes, an introduction to Micropropagation’."
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