I have some sympathy for the concept. In medicine, where
development and testing of drugs takes many years and millions of
dollars, there exists a scheme where only the developer can sell
the drug for a given number of years - this is for profits to defray
development costs, otherwise pharmaceutical companies would not
be viable. Successive poor governments have left many people
with more leisure time than they would wish and gardening is one
of the boom industries, with large sums of money at stake. If
someone spends 50 years breeding a blue rose by cross-pollination,
it seems fair that the breeder can benefit from the labour, rather
than be wiped out by Joe Tissue-Culture a year later. It is sad that
one rapacious individual has brought the whole concept into
disrepute and contempt.
Here in Europe, we are a long way down the path to incurring the
large development costs associated with medicines - Eurocrats have
forced Benlate off the shelves after current stocks are exhausted, and
you can no longer buy Green Tomatoes. (Fried Green Tomatoes At The
Whistle Stop Cafe just goes to show that Americans can occasionally
make good movies).
Good Growing, Nigel Hurneyman