Anyone seen recently off-patent hops for sale? (Amarillo, Simcoe, etc...)

[sweetcell]

amarillo lost its patent protection in 2020, and simcoe and warrior lost theirs in 2019. at some point, we should be able to get rhizomes... if the plant material makes it off the farm. it's also possible that the growers are contractually obligated to not sell cutting, who knows. i've also read that it will take at least 3 years after patent loss before us non-commercial growers see them, i.e. the time it will take commercial growers to massively plant these off-patent hops and have the plants mature to production age.

two relevant tweets:

@SROCHort
Jan 10, 2020
Replying to @BrewersStats
Chelan (PP08824) expired 2012, and Simcoe (PP12213) and Warrior (PP12404) expired in 2019. The name 'Amarillo' is still trademarked, so nobody else can use that name for hops, even IF the plant (VGXP01) gets out.

Josh Havill @getallhoppedup
Jan 5, 2021
Hop varieties that are now expired include: Amarillo, Chelan, C/T/Z, Millenium, Simcoe, Tillicum, and Warrior
Next up: Palisade (2022), Bravo (2023), Summit (2024), Apollo, Citra, and Super Galena (2026), Loral (2029), Mosaic (2030), Calypso (2031). Quite a ways out for some.

all that to say: if anyone sees amarillo (VGXP01) or simcoe rhizomes for sale, please post here and let us know!

 

[Kaz15]

I just did a couple google searches and no luck. I agree it may take a few years for some of these rhizomes to make it to the public.

I would LOVE some Simcoe growing in my yard!

 

[B-Hoppy]

Because a patent (protection) expires, does this mean that the person/entity that developed it has to release it?

 

[sweetcell]

Because a patent (protection) expires, does this mean that the person/entity that developed it has to release it?

it is my understanding (and i'm not a patent lawyer) that the expiration of a patent does not force the owner to release it to the public. they are free to continue trying to protect their intellectual property - they just don't have the law on their side anymore should an infraction occur.

- with patent protection: owner can sue you, seize any profits made off the plant, force the offenders to rip up their fields, etc.
- without protection: owner can do diddly squat if you're found in possession of the plant. owners can try and limit your access to the plant, but once you've got your paws on it it's yours. so the question is: how do we get our mitts on it?

patents aren't the only way an owner can (try to) protect their IP. if they are still the sole source for the plants, they can include all sorts of non-sharing provisions in a contract regardless of patent status.

things i'd love to know:
1) what were the terms in the grower's (licensee's) contracts when the patent expired? how did things change, before vs. after? did the owners get the growers to continue paying license fees? what were the provisions for possession of the plant matter after the patent expired? are growers now free to sell cuttings/rhizomes from their existing fields?
2) what do new contracts state? if i'm a new farm and i want to grow amarillo, simcoe, warrior, etc. - is a contract even needed? if so, would it contain a provision about not selling cuttings/rhizomes?

 

[Kaz15]

I agree with all that. I’ll also add that current farmers of freshly off patent varieties likely still have “non-propagation” agreements. Which I believe would hold up in court as independent legal documents.

That being said, if a plant magically landed in my yard or your yard and we decided to sell the rhizomes, there wouldn’t be anything to stop us.
I’m also not a lawyer, so I could be totally wrong

 

[B-Hoppy]

Right, so if the protection expires on whatever germplasm may be in question, the developer doesn't really have a legal recourse if someone else is found to be growing or in possession of it. The question I would pose would be: "What does the developer have to gain by selling that particular germplasm to other growers once the protection expires?"

Farming is not a big money maker as occupations go, and the return on a crop like hops is pretty marginal all things being equal. I've come to know a good number of folks in the industry over the last 30+ years and can tell you, hop growers are just like any other farmer I've ever met and have the same types of values when it comes to dealing with their neighbor or their neighbor's neighbor. It's generally a pretty tight community and there's a lot of trust developed over the generations which is taken into consideration when they approach one of their neighbors about putting in some acreage of one of their proprietary varieties.

One of the biggest benefits of proprietary varieties is that you can control the 'supply' part of the supply/demand scenario. If demand is starting to drop, you can just rip out some acreage to help moderate the hit and give you time to make adjustments on what you're growing as time goes on. This situation is also true for the growers who are contracted to grow these proprietaries for the developer, if the market becomes flooded with that germplasm they're all seeing a lower bottom line so it's beneficial to all concerned to keep it regulated - even after the protection time frame has expired.

Now, if there's a rogue employee on one of these farms who steals some germplasm and tries to propagate and distribute it, that's a whole other story. There was a gypsy going around farm to farm in southern MI and Northern OH a few years ago offering some proprietary varieties for sale saying that he had a decent sized operation going over in Iowa or something like that where he could make cuttings from. I contacted two of the growers/developers of these and they told me that they'd relay the info to their lawyers but I never heard back from them as to if they caught the guy or not. The question here is, do you believe the gypsy in that you're going to get what you're actually told you're getting - or are you paying a premium price for cuttings that could be from ANY OPEN SOURCE variety out there? He'll have your $$ and be long gone by the time you find out you paid $10/stick for Centennial, Cascade, Willamette etc. laughing all the way to his next grift!

ps: the farm selling the Summit years ago was given a slap on the wrist from the Oregon Hop Commission from what I was told? I wouldn't be holding my breath thinking I was going to get some of these others once they come off patent.

 

[Kaz15]

Well said. I agree. There’s not a whole lot of financial benefit that I can see for growers or breeders of off patent hops to make them available to the public.

Assuming it ever did happen, I would only buy a plant/rhizomes from a reputable dealer anyway.

 

[mashpaddled]

I would assume these hops are being grown with non-propagation clauses in the contracts so they can't dilute the quality or market share. Although the breeder may have lost patent protection it doesn't mean they have lost the right to enforce contractual terms.

 

[lecturepioneer]

Anyone have any luck finding some?
I'm desperate to grow some Simcoe in my allotment.

 

[Apimyces]

Might take a while because those who own such plants have vested interests in limiting propagation.