>NOTICE OF INTENT TO OBJECT
>(...)Geoffrey Mansell formerly of G. & G. Carnivors, Gin Gin, Queensland has
>applied to your organisation for a Grant of Plant Variety Rights on
>an "All Red Form" of the Venus Fly Trap (Dionaea muscipula).
>
>I have been involved in the field of Carnivorous Plants for the past
>20 years and believe that the proposed plant offered for
>provisional protection under The Plant Varieties Act 1987 (...)
I am not at all familiar with a "Plant Varieties Act 1987" (BTW: it should
rather be variants or cultivars, not varieties! But lawyers are rarely
botanists...). Therefore, I do absolutely not know which could be the
conseqence of "provisional protection under" this act.
If this included inhibition of trade and breeding with the protected
cultivar, here is my tip: try the "nomenclatural" solution, i.e. throw away
the label, repot the plant, name it _D.muscipula_, and continue job as
usual. Nobody (not even Mr. Geoffrey Mansell himself) will be able to prove
that your plant is actually *a clone* of the cultivar (only clones do
belong to it!).
I doubt this issue is worth time (and money) debating with people who think
their clones should be protected by law.
Kind regards
Jan