Royalties for certain varieties

[paubin]

Certain grape varieties, predominately those originating from Cornell University, require a royalty to be paid. From what I've seen this is from anywhere from .35 to 1.85. I'm sure appleman knows about this and probably several others. Could someone chime in and let me know how this works, such as, is this a charge per vine or what? Thanks in advance.

Pete

 

[ibglowin]

Yep, I bought vines last year from Double A vineyards and all had a small royalty included as well as a "no propagate" clause in the "terms of use".

 

[FL Steve]

It isn't only New York. Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, Arkansas and also private breeders charge royalties. The fees in NY go back into the breeding program, that is why there are two scales, one for residents and one for non-residents, all because there are some subsidies from NY and it is not fair to charge through your taxes and also in the royalties. Since you have already paid somewhat through your taxes, you get a discount.

For the most part, the grapes are intellectual material and copyrighted or patented. As for the non propagation agreement, it is sort of like having software like Autocad or whatever that you purchased but the creator retains the rights to it yet. NY has been cutting the subsidies like crazy in these economic times so I guess it is a small price to pay. They almost wiped out the IPM Program and we know how important that is to the fruit industry.

These take a lot of time to develop and test prior to release. When you see a numbered variety like 73.0136.17 (Noiret) or 70.0809.10 (Corot Noir) The first number is the year of the cross, so those would be in 1973 and 1970. Traminette was crossed in 65 and Chardonel in 53. Thankfully they are developing newer methods to develop them faster but it takes time and money. I know that literally 10s of thousands of seedlings have to be grown for each cross and grown to the point where resistance and quality can be evaluated before release.

Sorry for the long post but it always used to irk me to have to pay but now that I understand why, I am glad to chip in.

 

[grapeman]

Thanks for making my reply easy Steve. Ditto what he said. Bruce Reisch of Cornell plants over 5000 seedlings every year in his no-spray program under way at Geneva. The first release is upcoming in the next year or so with NY 95.301.01. It has been on the fast track because it stands out so- and that cross was made 16 years ago.


All our programs are under a very competitive grant system and you can use every bit of financial help you can get. I know this first hand as a part time Cornell employee. I have been on a year-to year employment basis and last year my pay was fronted with non grant money to be later picked up by the grant when it finally came through. This year my NE SARE Grant was not funded and my research has suffered a setback because of it. Too bad too because judging by preliminary results, I am onto something that has the potential to double yields of Cold Climate Grapes while maintaining or even improving quality. The vines are also responding by becoming less vigorous and require reduced spray inputs (improves your bottom line while helping out the environment). I cannot give a definitive answer at this point because one reviewer did not see the value of spending $7000 on something that could be worth millions of dollars every year.

 

[ibglowin]

Hmmmm........

You ever watch "Shark Tank"!

 

[paubin]

accccckkkkkk....I understand guys the need for royalties to the producers of the particular variety. I was mostly wondering if that was the charge per vine. By the way, Appleman. that one individual sounds like carreer politicial...perhaps if you told him it'll cost $7000 but the entire program will, cost several million later he'll go for it. Thats how mostgov stuff works....right....lol.


Pete

 

[grapeman]

Yes the charge is per vine. If the royalty is $.50 per vine and you get 10 vines, the nursery adds 5.00 and send it to the breeder organization.

 

[paubin]

OK, thanks for the fast responce all.


Pete