Editing Cultivar (section)

== Legal protection of cultivars and their names ==

{{further|Plant breeders' rights|Trademark}}

Since the 1990s there has been an increasing use of legal protection for newly produced cultivars. [[Plant breeding|Plant breeders]] expect legal protection for the cultivars they produce. According to proponents of such protections, if other growers can immediately propagate and sell these cultivars as soon as they come on the market, the breeder's benefit is largely lost.<ref>P. Gepts (2004) ''Who Owns Biodiversity, and How Should the Owners Be Compensated?'' Plant Physiology 134, pp. 1295–1307</ref>
Legal protection for cultivars is obtained through the use of Plant breeders' rights and plant Patents but the specific legislation and procedures needed to take advantage of this protection vary from country to country.<ref>[http://www.bspb.co.uk/BSPB%20Handbook.pdf BSPB ''Plant breeding – The business and science of crop improvement''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110911091226/http://www.bspb.co.uk/BSPB%20Handbook.pdf |date=2011-09-11 }} British Society of Plant Breeders booklet</ref>

=== Controversial use of legal protection for cultivars ===

The use of legal protection for cultivars can be controversial, particularly for food crops that are staples in developing countries,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ssrn.com/abstract=647863 |title=Adi, A.B.C., ''Intellectual Property Rights in Biotechnology and the Fate of Poor Farmers' Agriculture.'' Social Science Research Network |date=13 January 2005 |access-date=2020-07-23 |archive-date=2021-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715072543/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=647863 |url-status=live }}</ref> or for plants selected from the wild and propagated for sale without any additional breeding work; some people consider this practice [[Ethics|unethical]].<ref>[http://www.callygardens.co.uk/pbr_article.html 'Who owns nature?'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110911145947/http://www.callygardens.co.uk/pbr_article.html |date=2011-09-11 }} (article by nurseryman and plant hunter Michael Wickenden, published in ''[[The Plantsman (magazine)|The Plantsman]]'')</ref>

=== Trade designations and selling names ===

{{anchor|Trade designations|reason=Old section name, with many links to it.}}

The formal scientific name of a cultivar, like ''Solanum tuberosum'' 'King Edward', is a way of uniquely designating a particular kind of plant. This scientific name is in the public domain and cannot be legally protected. Plant retailers may wish to increase their share of the market, and one way of doing this is to replace the Latin scientific names on plant labels in retail outlets with appealing marketing names that are easy to use, pronounce, and remember. Marketing names lie outside the scope of the ''Cultivated Plant Code'' which refers to them as "trade designations". If a retailer or wholesaler has the sole legal rights to a marketing name then that may offer a sales advantage. Plants protected by [[plant breeders' rights]] (PBR) may have a "true" cultivar name – the accepted scientific name in the public domain – and a "commercial synonym" – an additional marketing name that is legally protected. An example would be ''Rosa'' {{tdes|Fascination}}='Poulmax', in which ''Rosa'' is the genus, {{tdes|Fascination}} is the trade designation, and 'Poulmax' is scientific cultivar name.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

Because a name that is attractive in one language may have less appeal in another country, a plant may be given different selling names from country to country. Quoting the original cultivar name allows the correct identification of cultivars around the world.<ref>{{Harvnb|Spencer|Cross|Lumley|2007|pages=76–81}}</ref>

The main body coordinating plant breeders' rights is the [[International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants]] ({{lang|fr|Union internationale pour la protection des obtentions végétales}}, UPOV) and this organisation maintains a database of new cultivars protected by PBR in all countries.<ref>{{Harvnb|Spencer|Cross|Lumley|2007|page=78}}</ref>