PATENTING NEW FLOWERS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 47, 25 February 1914, Page 3

PATENTING NEW FLOWERS

DISCUSSED BY NURSERYMEN. (Press Association.) AUCKLAND, 24th February. An interesting subject was mooted by Mr. T. W. Kirk (Director of the Orchards Division of the Department of Agriculture), in the course of a discussion at the Nurserymen's Conference on the desirability of certificating boards. "Why should not your society promote a Horticultural Industries Bill, so that all new fruits and flowers could be registered, and you could have the sole 1 right of propagating them for a period of five years?" he asked. j The secretary of the association (Mr. I G. A. Green) informed Mr. Kirk that the opinion of a well-known patent firm had already been taken on the subject, and he had advised them that, under the existing Patent Acts, there was no reason why new varieties of flowers and fruits should not be registered in Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Kirk replied that he was not a lawyer, but he did not think that they could get the protection of existing Patent Acts. Still, there was nothing to prevent the society from framing a scheme whereby the full description and particulars relating to new varieties could be scheduled under a Patent Act.