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Patent debate affects local roses WTO's stand on intellectual property could protect Jackson & Perkins from rose piracy The Associated Press Jackson & Perkins' wholesale catalog featuring dewy cut roses with such names as "Tango," "Kiko" and "Opulent" seems an unlikely battleground over intellectual property rights. But like software, videotapes, hybrid corn seeds and computer chips, the Medford company's hybrid roses are intellectual property subject to such ownership rights as patents, trademarks and copyrights. Intellectual property is one of three broad subjects on the agenda for the World Trade Organization's meeting Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 in Seattle. The topic creates one of the deepest fault lines between the agency's industrial and developing member nations. Although intellectual property is a term often associated with technology industries, much of the debate in Seattle probably will center on patenting plants, animals and genetically engineered organisms. Access to the meetings will be tightly restricted, but a daylong seminar for the masses of nondelegates attending will be devoted to the subject "No Patents on Life." Beer Creek Corp., which breeds and sells Jackson & Perkins roses, doesn't plan to participate in the Seattle debate, but it's very interested in the outcome. The company loses money each year to unlicensed growers in Latin America who breed the prized and patented blooms and sell the cut flowers without paying royalties, said Omer Schneider, senior vice president of the company's Bear Creek Gardens division. Beer Creek and other companies involved in this modern day war of roses have worked with some countries, such as Ecuador and Colombia, to get them to adopt new plant patent laws. Schneider estimates that several million dollars' worth of pirated roses come into the United States each year. "It's a huge problem," said John Dolan, rose specialist with California-based Dolan International, a company that licenses rose propagators. "Millions and millions of dollars were just ripped off." In one sense, Bear Creek's struggle is a small blip in global commerce. The Medford company is one of about three commercial rose breeders in the United States affected by the illegal rose trade. Probably only two dozen more around the world feel the sting of rose piracy. Still, Bear Creek's concerns speak to a fundamental clash in international trade about the issues of patenting trends, genes and other material associated with life. To companies such as Bear Creek, plant patents are hard-won assets. Companies spend a lot of money on research and development to create better products for consumers, Schneider and others argue. It can take more than seven years to develop a rose such as Jackson & Perkins' new raspberry-scented "Veterans' Honor" or the dark burgundy rose called "Classy," patented by the Hills Floral Group in Indiana. "That's a lot of money and testing," said Lindly Mann, president of Hills Floral Group. Mann's company, which breeds roses for cut flowers, has fought numerous legal battles with growers in Ecuador. "We put a lot of money behind a rose like Classy, not to have it pilfered. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA