Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property (IP) Management is a key part of the Hargreaves Plants business.  In addition to the testing of new varieties, the business manages a significant portfolio of Intellectual Property on behalf of worldwide breeders and their agents.

Hargreaves Plants has installed licensing arrangements in all six of the main growing continents worldwide.  These licences take various forms but involve the policing of the Intellectual Property as well as royalty collection.

The company draws upon the experience of an international team of lawyers to aid in the processes of plant variety protection and patenting.

A further step that the business has taken is to obtain a DNA profile of leading varieties.  This stays on record and allows the company to check suspect fruit or plants that it is indeed the specific variety.  This is a further step to help the policing of the IP.

There is a wealth of key products that are licensed by Hargreaves Plants.  Some of the main examples are listed below:

Erika raspberry - licensed for testing and commercial production all around the globe.

Polka raspberry - primocane variety that is licensed in all six growing continents.

Arkansas primocane blackberries - Hargreaves has worldwide licensing rights to develop these ground breaking plants.  Reuben is the first release.

Guelph Millennium asparagus - leading green asparagus variety and Hargreaves has licensing arrangements for a wide range of territories.

Important Definitions

Hargreaves Plants provides this information in good faith but it is not qualified to give legal advice.  Should those reading have any questions, they are counselled to seek their own specific legal advice.

Intellectual Property: Any intangible asset that consists of human knowledge and ideas.  Some examples are patents, copyrights, trademarks and software.  Most such assets cannot be recognized on a balance sheet when internally generated, since it is very difficult to objectively value intellectual property assets.

 Plant Breeders' Rights (PBR): Also known as Plant Variety Rights (PVR), are rights granted to the breeder of a new variety of plant that give him exclusive control over the propagation material (including seed, cuttings, divisions, tissue culture) and harvested material (cut flowers, fruit, foliage) of a new variety for a number of years. 

Patents: A Plant Patent is a right granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) which allows the patent owner to exclude others from propagating the patented variety, or from selling or using it, or any of its parts throughout the United States.

Trademarks: Whereas (USPTO) Patents protect inventions, Trademarks include any word, name, symbol or device used in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others and to indicate the source of the goods.

For more information or to enquire about licensing possibilities, the company would like to invite that contact is made in one of the following ways:

Sue Williams, Intellectual Property Manager - sue@hargreavesplants.com

Rupert Hargreaves - rupert@hargreavesplants.com

Jamie Petchell - jamie@hargreavesplants.com

Tel: 0044 (0)1406 366300