Does anyone know of any lists summarizing which varieties of common fruits (e.g., apples, plums) are currently under patent and when those patents expire?
For example, a number of disease resistant apple varieties have come out of the PRI Co-op (e.g., Pixie Crunch, Sundance, William’s Pride, Pristine, Goldrush, Liberty, Freedom), some of which are still under patent and some of which were under patent but the patent has expired.
Also, how much care do I need to exercise when buying trees of patented varieties, particularly from someone who does custom grafting? If it’s a commercial business that supplies the scion wood and / or rootstock (if only one of the two, orders the other from someone), can I reasonably assume that everything is fine on the patent royalty front or is this something I need to make a particular point of doing?
Also, what if I buy scion wood from a commercial supplier? Can I assume the supplier has that end taken care of, or do I need to do something?
Per previous discussions on rootstocks, some of the disease resistant varieties (a fair number of which are patented) may not be easily obtainable on one of my preferred rootstocks and custom grafting may be a good way to go, potentially including doing the grafting myself using purchased rootstocks and scion wood.
What I don’t want to do is to inadvertently violate someone’s patent or do something that’s obviously encouraging someone else to do the same (even if I have absolutely no legal culpability, since I view this as being as much a moral issue as a legal one).
Unless it’s something where paying a royalty is as simple as just sending a check to the patent holder on one’s own recognizance (e.g., they’ve said on their website, just send us $1.00 per tree and a one page form with your name, address, and how many of what variety you propagated), then dealing with the patent issues is likely to be a bit too much for me (e.g., negotiating a license to propagate a few trees would be a lot of work and total overkill, not to mention that the patent holder likely couldn’t be bothered with it due to the small amount of money involved).
Can anyone provide me with more insight on this issue?