2012 CIOPORA Chronicle

PlantHaven
International
In 2011, PlantHaven became Plant-
Haven International, signifying
that the company has expanded its
services worldwide as the propagation,
distribution and marketing of
high volume new genetics has itself
become global, requiring a unified
management approach. PlantHaven
applies an international perspective
from the outset, resulting in
greater efficiencies and reduced
management costs for the breeding
program. PlantHaven’s international
clients include award-winning
breeding programmes PENHOW
(Diascias and Nemesias), REAL-
FLOR (Gaillardia and Leucanthemum),
WHETMAN PINKS
Dianthus, already brands in their
own right – together with The University
of Hawaii (Colocasias) and
North Carolina State University
(Cercis) whose breeding is the very
best of its class.
CIOPORA’s great value
Looking to the future, PlantHaven
understands that its independent
breeder clients expect a high degree
of integrity and professional competence
in order to advance and
protect their position in a rapidly
changing and complex multinational
industry. Familiar disciplines
of plant variety protection must
be combined with an appreciation
of branding strategies in which
breeder, producer and retailer all
wish to stake a claim and build
value. Geoff and Maureen and
team are enjoying meeting these
new challenges, in the knowledge
that their clients can continue to
focus on their breeding endeavours.
Fortunately, access to information
and professional assistance is
readily available to any company
that wishes to constantly improve.
As PlantHaven approaches its first
ten years of membership in CIO-
PORA, Geoff and Maureen find
ever greater value in networking
with and learning from industry
peers at CIOPORA’S meetings,
workshops and seminars. The common
objectives and the camaraderie
of CIOPORA members is always
evident, and new members with
new experiences are welcomed
and encouraged. The CIOPORA
Board and working groups devote
exceptional time and expertise to
advancing the quality and accessibility
of international plant variety
protection, identifying trouble spots
and weak links for future targeted
action. Geoff and Maureen have
come to particularly value the
accessibility and communications
from Dr. Krieger and his colleagues
in the Hamburg office.
Whetman Pinks
Future
Geoff and Maureen see that breeders’
returns are under pressure from
increasing costs of variety protection
whilst average variety market
life reduces. In consequence,
breeders are choosing not to protect
all of their releases: a policy which
is fraught with risk for the very system
of variety protection for which
breeders and CIOPORA fought for
so long.
Geoff and Maureen are also concerned
that the US is effectively a
bystander in the process of evolving
a global system of plant variety protection.
The US Plant Patent system
is eighteen years short of its centenary,
the oldest plant variety system
in the world – but has barely advanced
since its enactment. Whilst
the protection of varieties by patent
is a great asset, not least for enforcement,
the US industry should begin
to weigh the deficiencies in scope
for the future needs of professional
breeding programmes and therefore
the industry itself. Controversially
perhaps, PlantHaven favors an early
study of the feasibility of achieving
a “best-of-all-worlds” combination
of patent protection together with
a true minimum distance UPOV
regime, resulting from high quality
variety examination within the US
or by the taking over of suitable
foreign examinations.
No doubt, some of these challenges
will feature in the meetings and
discussions at CIOPORA’s AGM
in Miami. Geoff and Maureen will
be there! |||
CIOPORA Chronicle April 2012 | www.CIOPORA.org 33