> I am in the seed movement & you may have heard there are initiatives to adapt an open source format for seeds to make them available to the public.
AFAIK, most of what seeds do was patented long ago in the Bible and can no longer be restricted. Even the copyrightable aspects of what seeds do has long ago been turned into poetry. As to whether strings of DNA can be patented or copyrighted and then licensed in "an open source format" - this is probably not the correct list to ask. There is a U.S. plant patent [1]. Such patents can then be licensed to the public like any other invention. You might want to develop some form of non-assert for "free" uses that makes sense for your seed specialty. Again, I doubt this is the best list to ask. You could approach some of the organic certification organizations, GMO advocacy groups, or even the USDA, to see if they are working on this. /Larry [1] http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/types/plant_patents.jsp Lawrence Rosen Rosenlaw & Einschlag ( <http://www.rosenlaw.com/> www.rosenlaw.com) 3001 King Ranch Rd., Ukiah, CA 95482 Cell: 707-478-8932 LinkedIn: <http://lnkd.in/D9CWhD> http://lnkd.in/D9CWhD From: Patrick Masson [mailto:mas...@opensource.org] Sent: Monday, October 20, 2014 11:09 AM To: tracyml...@gmail.com; License Discuss Cc: o...@opensource.org Subject: Re: [License-discuss] [Osi] [General enquiries] OS license for seeds (!) Tracy, Thank you for contacting the OSI. I have forwarded on your question to our License Discuss list. Perhaps someone on that list has a suggestion for you. Best of luck, Patrick On 08/05/2014 05:19 PM, tracyml...@gmail.com <mailto:tracyml...@gmail.com> wrote: Tracy M Lord (tracyml...@gmail.com <mailto:tracyml...@gmail.com> ) sent a message using the contact form at http://opensource.org/contact. Can someone give me a thumbnail understanding of the legal status of the/any "open source license"? I am in the seed movement & you may have heard there are initiatives to adapt an open source format for seeds to make them available to the public. Yet I am uncertain about the legal status of a "license" in this context. Thanks a million anyone who wants to attempt toe enlighten me on this. Report as inappropriate: http://opensource.org/mollom/report/mollom_content/1408052eb66545b1bf _______________________________________________ Osi mailing list o...@opensource.org <mailto:o...@opensource.org> http://projects.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/osi -- || | | |||| || || | |||| ||| | ||| Patrick Masson General Manager, Director & Secretary to the Board Open Source Initiative 855 El Camino Real, Ste 13A, #270 Palo Alto, CA 94301 United States OSI Phone: (415) 857-5398 Direct Phone: (970) 4MASSON Skype: massonpj Em: mas...@opensource.org <mailto:mas...@opensource.org> Ws: www.opensource.org <http://www.opensource.org>
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