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New Player in Royalty and License Administration

April 28, 2008  By Canadian Garden Centre & Nursery


2006 finds a new player in the world of licensing and enforcement of plant patents.  COPF, a highly successful and effective plant management program
running for the past 41 years in Canada, has incorporated a non-profit organization in the U.S. called Plant Watch™.  Plant Watch will build on COPF’s history of facilitating relationships between growers and breeders from Europe, Asia and North America.

2006 finds a new player in the world of licensing and enforcement of plant patents.  COPF, a highly successful and effective plant management program running for the past 41 years in Canada, has incorporated a non-profit organization in the U.S. called Plant Watch™.  Plant Watch will build on COPF’s history of facilitating relationships between growers and breeders from Europe, Asia and North America.
Plant Watch serves the needs of both growers and breeders regarding royalties and patents.  The breeders involved are developers of flowers, perennials and woody plants.  As a non-profit agency, independent of any particular breeder, the organization advises growers about which plants can and cannot be propagated legally, explains patent rights and responsibilities, and enforces a level playing field to protect royalty-paying producers’ markets.  Plant Watch also gives growers a voice in the grower/breeder relationship.  Like COPF, the mandate of Plant Watch is to provide effective solutions in the management of propagation rights to growers and breeders for the benefit of the horticulture industry. 

Although it’s newly incorporated, the principals of Plant Watch have decades of experience in licensing and enforcement.  The Board of Directors includes: Ron Cramer, Sakata Seed America; Eric Voogt, Westcan Greenhouses; Laurie Scullin, The New Product Group; Todd Baker, Baker’s Nursery; Tom Intven, Canadale Nurseries; and the Managing Director is Peggy Walsh Craig.

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For more information, call (866) 414-1141 or visit www.plantwatch.org.


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