Finally... live and in print!

This makes "We Hear for You" look like clear, genius marketing

Leucanthemum plant named ‘Real Jewel’ US #PlantPatent No. 37,333 (granted today)

I've compared the reasoning of last week's Nadorcott decision with the UPOV Expert Study that was published in January. I end with a provocation - widespread approaches to determining the meaning of UPOV are inconsistent with the rules on treaty interpretation ipkitten.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-...

One from the archives: this rose variety is 'Irish Gold' ☘️ US #PlantPatent 2,769 (granted in 1967) It was bred by Patrick Dickson of Northern Ireland. It is also known as 'Grandpa Dickson' (here you can see it featured on a stamp in 1976 to celebrate the Centenary of Royal National Rose Society)

"I wish we had more PVR case law to help clarify the law"

My summary of yesterday's decision in the highly controversial Nadorcott PVR case. I'll have a lot more to say in due course. ipkitten.blogspot.com/2026/03/tang...

Oyster mushroom variety named ‘WUR SF3’ US #PlantPatent No. 37,326 (granted today) The variety produces no spores and has well-developed fleshy caps. It was bred in Wageningen, the Netherlands.

Colonial #Patents! Delighted that my paper on Mandate Palestine's patent law will be published with the Journal of Legal History later this year. Draft available at papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

get in, losers, we're going... to sue ICE for patent infringement www.iam-media.com/article/surv...

New article by @anzapp.bsky.social and myself about the need for principles of unfair competition by misrepresentation to play a stronger role in the protection of geographical indications: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New article by @anzapp.bsky.social and myself about the need for principles of unfair competition by misrepresentation to play a stronger role in the protection of geographical indications: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Mandevilla plant named 'TVMD944' US #PlantPatent No. 37,285 (granted today) The variety was bred in São Paulo, Brazil, as part of a program to develop plants with large flowers and good garden performance.

Absolutely mortifying as a person who is chronically early to have circumstances make you horribly late to a meeting in ~Germany~ of all places. Plans for the weekend: curl up into a ball and die.

Love that the breeder used the photo with their dog in the background. Cherry tree named 'FE' US #PlantPatent 37,268 (granted today) The tart cherry tree named 'FE' which produces fruit well suited for fresh eating, as well as for food and juice and wine products.

Many thanks to Dr Susannah Chapman (University College Cork) for delivering a great lecture in Belfast yesterday on the topic "Re-imagining (Re)production in Intellectual Property Law: New frontiers in the branding and making of botanical kinds"!

Heliopsis plant named ‘Rays For Days’ US #PlantPatent 37,266 (granted today) The plant was a cross between the unpatented varieties ‘Sunny Disposition’ x ‘Bleeding Heart’.

Hot off the press! nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Hot off the press! nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The draft text was published after I wrote the piece, so I shared some updated thoughts on the language of the draft: ipkitten.blogspot.com/2026/02/pate...

I shared some thoughts in Seed World Europe about the issues for patents and plant variety rights under the draft text of the EU NGT Regulation: www.seedworld.com/europe/2026/...

Interspecific Prunus tree named ‘Flavor Chief’ US #PlantPatent No. 37,239 (granted today) The variety was bred in California. It is distinguished by various characteristics including its fruit with very good flavor and eating quality.

While Carney's cuts at Agriculture & Agri-Food #Canada 'are wide-ranging, projects that could help Canadian farmers become less reliant on the US — a major supplier of pesticides and fertilizers — and more adaptable to climate change appear to be the hardest hit.' #CDNPoli #ClimateCrisis #AAFC

Raspberry plant named ‘Crimson Blush’ US #PlantPatent No. 37,228 (granted today) The variety was bred at Cornell University with support of federal funding from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Phalaenopsis (moth orchid) plant named ‘MI02909’ US #PlantPatent No. 37,222 (granted today) The variety was bred in Belgium as part of a breeding program to develop new fast-growing and freely flowering Phalaenopsis plants with flowers with unique patterns and coloration.

I'm really excited to have Dr Susannah Chapman (University College Cork) joining us at 12:00 GMT on Wednesday 11 February to give a talk on intellectual property, plant varieties, and fruit branding strategies. All welcome, and there's an online attendance option: www.qub.ac.uk/schools/Scho...

It's always a grim sign when Australians are looking at your country and saying "huh, this feels eerily familiar..."

Caladium plant named 'UF-15-131' US #PlantPatent No. 37,218 (granted today) The variety is distinguished by its deep red-purple blotches and tolerance to leaf sunburn when grown outside, as well as disease resistance, amongst other features.

Hubbard was able to convince the Society that he had a PhD in nuclear physics and they even made him a member of their “Scientific Advisory Board.” He'd attach an E-Meter, then stab the fruit with a nail or tear off some leaves to show that the plants were "feeling pain."

Having some weekend fun reading about atomic gardening (the use of radiation to induce mutations in plants). I totally forgot that L. Ron Hubbard was part of the British Atomic Gardening Society... that poor tomato...

yes PLEASE

Some important new government policy that Native Americans might be interested in:

So, to help illustrate why this thread is so horrifying, Stanford did a study on Lexis+ AI, Westlaw AI-Assisted Research, and Thomson-Reuters Ask Practical Law AI, and found between 17% and 33% hallucinations even though these are supposed to be the retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) tools.

Article from @theguardian.com by @damiengayle.bsky.social Stingless bees from the Amazon granted legal rights in world first "Planet’s oldest bee species and primary pollinators were under threat from deforestation and competition from ‘killer bees’" www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I'd love to know how on earth the International Cotton Advisory Committee ended up on this list. Have they simply listed any organisation that has dared to mention climate change recently?

'Despite all their difficulties, universities remain an enormous and irreplaceable national asset. As well as educating millions of people, they generate about £24bn in export earnings, which is about 1% of GDP – more than aircraft manufacturing and legal services combined'. 1/2

we're hiring in STS @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social! deadline coming up soon (February 8). focus is the social science-y corners of STS preferably w/ some interest in sustainability & environment - but interpreted broadly. vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric...

Pineapple plant named 'FR20966' US #PlantPatent No. 37,193 (granted today) The new variety is resistant to Fusarium guttiforme (also known as fruit rot) and has fewer spines compared to its parent varieties. The variety was bred in Brazil.

New Interview: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

What a wrong answer

Starmer has declared his ambivalence in the strongest possible terms and announced that the British government will equivocate with immediate effect.

I'll add that Dr. Bosse has been a very kind and generous commentator for our casebook chapter on plants. We can't always fit in all the amazing details and background she provides but the chapter is much better than it would be without her comments and insights.

Happy new year! I've written a round-up of all the notable developments in plant IP in 2025. I previously discussed many of these stories in the IPKat, but I also cover some other news items that I didn't get a chance to write about during the year: ipkitten.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-...

Happy new year! I've written a round-up of all the notable developments in plant IP in 2025. I previously discussed many of these stories in the IPKat, but I also cover some other news items that I didn't get a chance to write about during the year: ipkitten.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-...

Seems right 👍

calling up the guys who did the Louvre heist to see if they'll join me for One Last Job

Some species officially bid us farewell this year. Recent IUCN assessments now list the slender-billed curlew, Christmas Island shrew, three Australian bandicoots, plants in Mauritius and Hawai‘i, and a Cape Verde cone snail as extinct.

If you're looking for something to get yourself in the mood for the New Year's Eve festivities, here's my review of the book "Beer Law" Have a safe and fun start to 2026 everyone- sláinte, cheers, santé, prost, skål! ipkitten.blogspot.com/2025/12/book...

Epimedium plant named 'Jester's Hat' US #PlantPatent 37,187 (granted today)