PDSI Partners with Plant Watch to Protect Plant Variety Patents
For Encore® Azaleas and the Southern Living Plant Collection
Move Designed to Thwart Patent Infringers
Loxley, AL—–Beginning this fall, nurseries and garden centers nationwide that carry Encore Azaleas and plant varieties in the Southern Living® Plant Collection can expect polite inspections by Plant Watch®, a plant patent and brand monitoring program, according to Kip McConnell, director of Plant Development Services, Inc. (PDSI).
“By partnering with Plant Watch, we can ensure that the intellectual property rights, patents and branding related to Encore Azaleas and the Southern Living Plant Collection are protected against infringers. It’s one more way we support our licensees and our customers while protecting our investments in development and branding,” commented McConnell.
Growers who comply with patent and branding requirements are at a disadvantage when infringers undercut prices. Plant Watch® will inspect nurseries, report on their findings, and collect fines where warranted. Nurseries found to be non-compliant will be assessed a significant fine based on the number of unauthorized plants discovered, and the destruction of those plants will be required. Growers are reminded that plant patents and Plant Breeders’ Rights are based on having permission to propagate.
According to Plant Watch® Managing Director Peggy Walsh Craig, “Everyone agrees that prices need to be improved. We need to sell more plants to more and different kinds of people. Branding, patenting, and monitoring help accomplish these goals. Unfortunately, some growers are taking advantage illegally of the investment made by other growers in these programs.”
Plant Development Services, Inc., a leader in horticultural innovation, was founded in 1996. Plant Development Services, Inc. owns and/or licenses more than 50 patented plant properties, including the plant varieties in the Southern Living Plant Collection and the number one best-selling azalea brand in the word, Encore Azalea.
The Southern Living Plant Collection was first introduced in Spring 2008 as a partnership between Plant Development Services, Inc. and Southern Living magazine. The goal of the Collection is to provide gardeners with innovative new plants designed to solve specific landscape challenges and to excel in Southern gardens. Each plant in the collection is the result of years of plant evaluations, plant trials and research. For more information, visit www.southernlivingplants.com.
Encore Azaleas are the creation of plant breeder Robert E. “Buddy” Lee of Independence, Louisiana. Plant Development Services, Inc. assisted Lee in the 15-year hybridization and selection process and now manages the group of wholesale growers that brings Encore Azaleas to gardeners across the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, the Northwest and California. For more information, visit www.encoreazalea.com.
Plant Watch® started in 2005 and is modeled after COPF in Canada, a well-known monitoring program established in 1964.