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Old February 16, 2015   #41
surf4grrl
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: field of dreams
Posts: 97
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Quote:
A germplasm royalty of 10% net sales is pretty typical for exclusive, or perhaps co-exclusive distribution rights of an OP variety - as long as the exclusivity is maintained. Without PVP protection, maintaining the exclusivity is unlikely to last more than a year or two as various small seed companies buy seed of the new variety, produce their own seed and offer it for sale. If you also produce the commercial seed you will also be paid for that - but at a rate no higher than the seed company could contract that activity themselves. If seed of the finished OP variety, or earlier generations of the variety, are distributed widely - all bets are off on getting a seed company interested in paying a germplasm royalty.

Tom, Brad and Fred/me are all trying new and different business models to capture value for the efforts of breeders - I'd say with at least moderate success. Ultimately any model for rewarding breeders for their efforts will depend on seed buyer willingness to purchase directly from the breeder/developers, or from their authorized distributors.
Personally, I think it's the responsibility of the seed vendor to pay the royalty at the end of the year. If you are knowingly selling seed that is OP that was worked n by a breeder; it's incumbent upon you to do so.

Otherwise, there's no incentive to really breed OP material without a trademark or PVP.

We need open source material and the only way to do that is to reward the folks who create it, unless specifically told that this is "free as in speech, not free as in beer". (quoting the Open seed initiative.)
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