Dear Matthias

I had discussed the workings of HMF with Jean-Luc Pasquier and understood from him that he presented his views and findings at the Breeders Club. My understanding was that most Breeders are fine with becoming a Member and entering new data for future cultivars. This can be done without a special Breeder section, just by applying to HMF Admin for access rights to enter new roses. Many amateur breeders are already using this possibility.

Where I would have reservations is to have unlimited access to cultivars which are already on HMF. The restriction of this access to admins is in my opinion necessary for data integrity. A tremendous amount of information has been gathered over the years, which needs to be protected. Here I think, the Comments is the only way to go forward.

I remember that we admins discussed the issue of Plant Breeder Rights and the starting of the clock of protection with some other breeder. My personal view was that HMF has no access to proprietary information of the breeders and only reflects what is already published somewhere else. It is possible that this makes the job of the Patent authority easier by just looking up HMF first, but they can do the same by alternatively Googling. The control of information on new cultivars is really in the hands of the Breeder.

One contentious issue is that professional breeders are recycling Trademarks repeatedly for new roses. We all understand that this is due to the limited period of Patent protection and enables the professionals to utilize the value of the trade name. However, for our members it is important to know e.g. which 'Charmant' they have, so as to be able to post photos and comments on the correct page. For this, it is important to have the varietal name assigned correctly. Unfortunately, at least one breeder has started to suppress the varietal name in all publications. Very confusing for members and makes life hard for us admins. It leaves us no choice but to dig into other sources which we normally not look at in order to find the correct information.

The terminology can be sorted I am sure. Although the various "names" all appear as Name on the page of the rose, internally e.g. AM116 is shown as "Test/Seedling name/Breeding stock/Breeder's own code", while MEIptorius is the "Registered Breeder Code". This term I believe comes from the time roses were registered at the ARS, and you call it the "Varietal Name". Finally, we have 'Sabrina' internally as the "Variety Name", but for you it is the Trademark. The member using HMF sees all as synonym names, without distinction. To differentiate between these names could be confusing for the general public. Important is that using any of these names, one arrives on the same page.