OROC Principles and Remedies
Principle
1. 100% New registration access. All new registration data is shared online
100% free with no preferences
for any persons, parties, corporations, or organizations in terms of
access, timing,
or data delivery. No society dues, purchases of any product or service,
journal subscription fees, or other paid fees or compensation will be
required for access to this new cultivar data.
Principle 1.A.
We affirm that the purpose of
cultivar registration should never be financial support of a
plant society, botanical
garden, arboretum, organization, publisher, their staff, or other
entity, nor is it acceptable to monetize and control data access for
personal, professional, and organizational reasons. Cultivar
registration must favor
open, status-neutral, communication of plant information regardless of
ability or willingness to pay, join an organization, or subcribe to
specific media.
Principle
1.B. Non-interference
with tradtional monographs and databases. The
primary goal of the OROC program is cataloging and communication
new cultivar introductions, allowing authors, database developers,
curators, germplasm managers, and other compiling parties to write more
complete checklists and encyclopedia as their own work product,
integrating OROC data as they choose. When it becomes logical,
economically viable, and a strong scientific need, OROC will endeavor
to create and share complete checklists as 100% free publications,
mindful to avoid direct competition with authors, whenever possible or
feasible, on
whom we depend for free and willing exchange of data.
Principle 2.
No fee policy. No fees or other compensation are
charged for the registrations, processing or communication of data, or
any changes to same. Lack of membership,
legal standing, inclusion, nor any other fees or conditions will
exclude a person from registering a cultivar.
Principle 3. Expert
Assistance.
Scientific support including experts in taxonomy, genetics, and the
specific
genus, all when possible, are provided readily, at no cost, and
without delay. An unpaid, uncompensated, all volunteer panel of experts
will be assembled when possible to assist in all these
matters.
Principle 4.
Immediate Data Delivery. Registration data will
be provided online in a timely manner within 24 hours as a
goal, and sooner if possible.
Principle
5. ICNCP. The International Code of Nomenclature for
Cultivated Plants (ICNCP)
is our guide for cultivar name acceptance and evaluation when possible,
our Board of Directors allowing exceptions to be clearly stated and
explained.
Principle
6. Commercial Links..
Commercial links for promotion, mailorder sales, sales contacts, and
other communications will be encouraged and communicated as an
incentive for registration and general cooperation. This has been
widely discussed as a failure to motivate registration with the current
ICRA system. Nurserymen and plant breeders need exposure,
deserve
it in fact, and providing them a printed address reference in some
barely read journal is not what
they need, want, or desire. Also important is the easy, mailorder or
local availability of new cultivars to the buying public. There is
nothing more frustating than seeing an exciting, breakthrough cultivar
registration and finding no listing anywhere to acquire it.
Principle 7.
No Delay Policy.
Registrations are not delayed for
any commercial reason such as publication of book or product by a
participant except by legal demand by an attorney on record requiring
such an order. The delay of publication of data for the purpose of book
publication by an Author-ICRA, patron of some institution, or a noted
horticultural society is considered abuse of the system and will not be
tolerated.
Principle
8. Patent and PBR Monitoring. Application for a Plant
Patent or Breeders Rights is considered a
content capture event worthy of automatic registration and recognition.
Staff in this project are to monitor all Patent and PBR sites on a
regular basis.
Principle 9.
Proactive Data Seeking.
We will seek out
new cultivars by any ethical and legal means possible and consider all
publications of cultivars in catalogs, books, monographs, checklists,
websites, or other media to be worthy of our automatic registration
without or without the consent of the originator, nominant, introducer,
patent holder, patent assignee, or other party. Our registrations will
be both proactive and reactive, the first from our own study and the
second from submissions sent to us.
Principle 10. Communication paradigm. Data will be distributed by the most innovative, technologically
efficient, and effective means of communication possible. OROC will
invest time, money, and resources to study, test, and acquire new
technologies, tools, hardware and software, and all other means or
methods for efficient transfer of our free data to the most users
possible.
Principle
11. Volunteer and Student Mandate. Volunteers will be the
basis of our data development and
communication program. When possible we will have at least 20% of our
staff as student interns to keep use fresh, modern, and technologically
informed.
Principle 11.A. CCR
Program.
Commissioned Cultivar Registrars (CCR) will be trained and appointed
from the ranks of known experts and eager students to provide modern,
high level service at no cost and yet service of great value to our
Registrants.
Principle 12.
In the early stages, Http://www.cultivar.org is the default
free website for registration data but is given no preference over
other websites or media in any aspect or function. In future we will
list all other sites with a full availability of OROC data and regular
updates of such. The process for use and extraction of registrations
from the cultivar.org pages will discussed below.
Principle
13. Elimination of Registration Obstacles.
We will not impose severe and undesirable requirements upon
registrants such as demand for surrounding copyrights to images,
submission of nursery stock, herbarium vouchers, or plant tissues for
documentation or
evaluation, and need for extensive, multi-year cultivar trials. Such is
the perogative of patent and breeder's rights organizations and by no
means under any code the right of a cultivar registrar.
Principle 13.A.
OROC will promote and assist with maximum documentation of a new
cultivar but are mindful that our duty is registration and at no time
are we to comment on the merits of a new cultivar except in a clearly
editorial context with a named author. It is the work of plant trials
committees, Plant Plant, and Plant Breeders Rights authorities to
evaluate the unique merits of a new plant.
Principle 14.
A Board of Directors will supervise all activities and have power with
a simplle majority to rule on any issue.
Principle
15. Excluded genera policy. Our Board of Directors will determine a list of genera
well served
via ICRA with high scholarship, communication, data access, and other
criteria which will be excluded from the OROC process. Exclusions will
be posted on our registration forms and related portals. The
OROC program will not accept registrations in certain genera due to
their size, complexity, specialized interest, and existing success in
the ICRA and other programs. Subject to amendment by the Board of
Directors our current list of excluded genera are: all Bromeliaceae,
Camellia, Dahlia, Dianthus, Fuchsia, Gladiolus, Hemerocallis,
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (and tender hybrids), Hosta, Iris, Lilium,
all orchids, Paeonia, Rhododendron, Rosa, Saintpaulia and all other
Gesneriaceae, Syringa, and Tulipa.
Principle
16. We will endeavor with care and to cooperate with ICRA,
plant
society, and other expert organizations in genera to exchange data
whenever of mutual interest.
Principle
17. Proven effective registration tools such as those used
at
Coleussociety.com and ICRA will serve as models for other
genera
and plant groups in our scope.
Principle 18.
Data will be made
available in multiple formats and for multiple computer and media
platforms so far as cost permits.
Principle 19. CCR
Resources. Refusal of
later homonyms and synonyms in registration will be based on all
available literature from any reputable source. Staff have free access
to Cultivars of Woody Plants, Hatch's Perennials, HITS, and other
cultivar.org references at no cost to determine previous or confusing
use of names that the ICNCP forbids. We further recommend use of the
RHS Horticultural Database (not the new, Plant Finder), Internationalplantsnames, com, and plantscope.nl in this process.
Principle
20. Sensible Cultivar Name Policy. We will seek the
registration of sensible, easily read, and
communicated cultivar names in natural, vernacular language at all
times, discouraging the use of trademarked names as the sole,
preferred, logical, or
de facto
name of the garden taxon.
Principle 20.A.
We believe the flight of commercial
parties in using unregistered trademark names as the sole name for a
single cultivar stems in part from the ICRA system and widespread
refusals, abuses, and criticisms of plant breeders.
Principle
20.B. Rejection of some trademark names for OROC registration purposes. While OROC cannot
determine the merits, validity, or legal status of your trademark, we
have chosen to reject some trademark applications as non-taxonomic
entities or those not relating directly to individual cultivars and
their groups. These are:
- 20.B.1. Cultivar to Trademark and Trademark to Cultivar Conversions.
We will not refuse the registation of any cultivar
if the
originator approved use of a registered or unregistered trademark name
of the identifical name and spelling prior to it being considered
of cultivar rank. No name can thus be both a trademark and
cultivar name at once. Once a trademark, always a trademark - and once
a cultivar (such as in a Plant Patent) - always a cultivar. We
will of course understand errors in trade or other publications by
persons not having permission of the originator or assignee to control
name use. We will consider the originator's first published
intent for the taxon, whether an originator-sanctioned catalog,
article, or press release, or the first legal patent or PBR publication
as the means of establishing cultivar vs. trademark intent and
permanent status.
- 20.B.2. Multigenera Marketing Trademarks vs. Taxonomicaly Direct Cultivar or Cultivar Group Synonyms . We will register trademarked names only if they are direct homologues
(de facto trade synonyms) of (equivalents to) either one cultivar name or one cultivar group in a
single genus, on a purely one-to-one basis with the cultivar or cultivar group rank.Trademarked names for
general collections of taxa which span more than one genus will not be
accepted here and considered non-taxonomic marketing names. These
non-nomenclatural marketing or grouping names may be noted by the
CCR as a means of identifying the plant in gardens and on nursery
labels.
- 20.B.3. Disallowed unregistered trademark terms and names. We
will refuse any cultivar registration where the trademark name claims
trademark status over a name, legal property, or term that cannot be
trademarked, registered or not, due to existing, scientific,legal, popular,
and common use. For example, SHININNG™ COLEUS is acceptable but not
SHINNING COLEUS™ because the Latin genus name is a scientific name and
not subject to trademark law or control in most countries.
- 20.B.4. Trademarks without legal or historical standing. We
will refuse any cultivar registration with a trademark for which the
creator of it wishes to append to an existing cultivar name for which
they have no legal standing, historical connection at the time of
origination, originator or nominant status, exclusive rights assignment, PBR or Patent control, or other grounds for
claiming that cultivar as their own to name or market. For example, a party has decided
to append an unregistered trademark to the old Cotoneaster horizontalis
'Variegatus' with no connection to it in history, law, science, or any
known realm or jurisdiction. It will be chaos if tens of thousands of
existing, often old, cultivars come in play as trademark marketing
opportunities. We will refuse these trademarks as usurpations of scientific
nomenclature and naming rights unless granted by a national or federal
trademark agency. If a party has a unique or distinct clone of an
existing cultivar and wishes to name it, this should be done in terms
of a new, vernacular, non-Latin cultivar name according to the rules
and with a matching trademark name if they wish.
- 20.B.5. Unregistered to Registered Trademark Conversions. OROC
will not reject a cultivar registration if the trademark has been
legally registered with a national or federal agency if it previously
appeared as an unregistered trademark. Many such agencies and law firms
of note recommend preliminary or temporary use of unregistered
trademark marks until the registration process is complete.
Principle
21.
The staff will endeavor and be proactive at all times to
communicate with originators and introducers of cultivars to gain
further clarity of descriptions, histories, origins, nomenclature, and
to seek rights of high quality images. We will seek out answers rather
than waiting for them to be asked by other parties. We willl cultivate
relationships with plant originators, showing no favoritism, but
seeking to serve them as friends, colleagues, and horticultural
partners.
Principle
21.A.
Our model will be to serve Registrants with eagerness,
willingness, and full awareness of their goals for the use and
commercial promotion of a new cultivar, serving as much as we can,
charging them nothing, and thus encouraging future registrations under
our policy of honesty and helpfulness at all times. Flawless customer
service and communication without delay will be our goal at all times.
Principle
22. Printed and Bound Registers. Fees may be charged to
persons or libraries wishing to have
printed, traditionally published, or bound copies of registrations but
only as a means to recover costs and this with an absolute minimum of
expense to the buyer and as nearly as possible to no profit nor loss to
the project. We will work to minimize these demands and costs via
our online website and ebooks that satisfy the needs of the academic,
scientific, and all other traditional library communities.
Principle 22.A.
Free ebooks with registrations will be studied with the desire to offer
these via iTunes, Google Play Books, Amazon Kindle, and similar
services that support a worldwide audience.
Principle
23. The Board of Directors may delete or modify any of
these principles
with an 80% or higher majority vote and add new principes with the same
voting standard.
Principle 24.
Objective, non-evaluation mission. OROC will have no function in
determining the usefulness, commercial merits,
overly resemblant taxonomy, or
otherwise comment on the scientific merits of a new cultivar as has
been a declared abuse of ICRA in refusing registrations well outside
their defined role. The declaration of these merits is the role of
Plant Patent, PBR, and cultivar trial administrators and not the role
of any Registrar.
Principle 24.A. Respect for the necessity of commercial resemblant cultivars.
OROC understands the commercial needs, rights, and needs of nurseries
and marketing firms in this highly competitive age with so many
nurseries and garden failing and falling, that highly resemblant
cultivars are logical and frankly required. Everyone needs their own
dwarf purple Loropetalum, a compact gold-leaved Physocarpus, the super
narrow, wintergreen and denser than coral Thuja cultivar, and
that glowing (but not too harsh) pink Phlox paniculata with massive
heads that do not flop above mildew-free foliage. OROC will refuse
no resemblant registrations based on the natural convergence of
commercial requirements in our big world, knowing that the competition
of likes and near equals lead to better plants over time. We will seek
to distinguish them when possible by noting comparisons and contrasts
in detail.
Principle 24.B. Reference to existing, objective cultivar evaluations and trial reports.
While it is not the function or OROC or any other cultivar registration
program to determine the garden merits, distinctiveness, or commercial
potential for a given cultivar, we do reserve the link to respected
university, plant society, and third part evaluation and trial programs
and include this data in a cultivar data sharing section. Persons are
welcome to submit links to proven trial organizations to provide a
diversity of viewpoints on a particular cultivar from trial grounds
around the world.
Principle 25. Conditional ornamental qualifiications. We will accept registration in certain genera which contain high
ornamental, landscape-worthy plants but refuse registration of
cultivars purely for pomological, agronomic, olericultural, or
non-aesthetic production of fruit, flowers, leaves, and other plants
parts. Grounds for considering a taxon ornamental or semi-ornamental,
even an edible-landscape plant, include but are not limited to: high
colored or variegated foliage, highly colored and abundant fruit,
unique plant habit, highly showy leaf colors such as gold, blue, or red
foliage, showy bark or twigs, highly colored and abundant flowers,
doubleness or incision of flower, incised or unusual lobing of the leaf
blade, and fragrance of the flowers.
Principle 25. A.
Subject to a 80% majority vote of the Board of Directors, OROC will
only accept ornamental taxa in the following genera if proven or know
to be ornamental and the originator must provide sufficient data to
prove a highly aesthetic status: Brassica, Carya, Fragaria, Juglans,
Lactuca, Malus, Musa, Pisium, Prunus, Pyrus, Punica, Rubus,
Saccharum, and Zea.
Principle 26. Ban
on Name Holding or Reservation. No system of
cultivar name reservation or "holding" will be allowed or implemented.
This ICRA abuse with hefty fees for name reservation and later for
actual registeration and later registration data changes will not be
permitted at any time or place.
Principle 26.A.
Fake cultivar rejection. Registrations based on previous "reserved" names fraudulently published
for plants which do not yet exist, using doubtful images and
descriptions will not be accepted. Some originators freely admit this
practice and one had stated "the next good seedling I find will be
called Y...and am laying claim to the name now". Registering a breeding or selection goal not extant or real will be rejected.
Principle 27.
Preference for registration will not be dependent on any marketing
opportunities, advertising participation, or other means of
compensating the OROC project. All registrants will be treated equally
regardless of participation, past or present.
Principle 27.A.
All new cultivar registrations will be completely open on at least one
website (currently the default www.cultivar.org) without requirement
for membership, registration of use, signing up, transfer of personal
information, ad presentations, or any other act even if free and
without obligation. These listings are part of the OROC Data Sharing
Program.
Principle 27.B. Complete, historical
(past to present or past only) cultivar checklists and
horticultural monographs if 100% free may require access by means of
registration or sign for a newletter, password, or similar program as a
means of documentating use and assuring data integrity and security of
these specialized, very large documents which fall outside the OROC
Data Sharing Program. In most cases these documents contain images,
text, and other contents which must preserve copyright compliance and
previous legal agreements and are appropriate for sharing but
maintaining the rights of authors, image copyright holders, and other
considerations which do not permit free exchange without considerations
or conditions.
Principle 27.C.
Respect for Existing Cultivar Publications.
Due to existing author agreements, previous sales promises to
customers, copyright notices, and publication contracts, some content
at cultivar.org and other allied sites, namedly CULTIVAR.ORG DIRECT
ACCESS will be exempt from OROC Data Sharing. We will endeavor to
convert some CULTIVAR.ORG DIRECT ACCESS material to 100% OROC free
content as legal and contractual obligations pass. It is not the
purpose or goal of OROC to render horticultural authorship in terms of
cultivar checklists, horticultural monographs, and other cultivar
databases obsolete by demanding no-cost access at all times. Indeed the
profit motive is essential to get great, large works completed and
allow the authors to retire with modest royalties as they deserve and
require.
Principle 27.D.
OROC will encourage free sharing of large monographs and
checklists, mindful of the necessity of authors to fund their
careers, expensive research programs, highly beneficial
breeding
and conservation projects, preservation of their valuable gardens and
worldclass collections in an era of high taxation, but trying to
maximize the amount of free material at all times within these
practical boundaries. OROC will seek the donation of manuscripts from
living authors as well as gifts from the author's estate via secured,
long-term gift management.
Principle
28. Mandate for New Technologies. We will use new
technologies, communication media, and all other
techniques of scientific, commercial, and informational merit to
communicate our data. Currently we use the resources of 123contactform
which provide real analytics, graphs, Google Maps to cultivar origins
and display gardens, social media feeds, video embeds, numerous free
marketing tools for registrants, JPG image uploads, and many other
modern tools.;
Principe
29. Response Time Requirement.. Registrants and all
parties will receive a response within 24
hours during business (weekdays) when possible and no later than 48
under any circumstance with a reply well-researched with due diligence,
providing a complete answer when possible and a preliminary report when
necessary. Followups must be swift and regular for complex projects at
all times. We will never tolerate lack of responses and long delays as
typical of ICRA and plant society communications under any terms as
these are our valuable partners, friends, and worthy creators of our
future gardens who demand respect and the highest level of honor at all
times.
Principle
30. In the spirit of international scientific cooperation
the OROC will
at all times offer registration data to ICRA and other parties of
similar standing and authority (such as well-known authors, breeders,
scholars) in a given genus for their own use, consideration, providing
no copyright restrictions on their use or sharing of this data. This
effort will be proactive and not reactive, waiting only for requests.
Principle
31. Cultivar Group Registrations.
Cultivar Groups may be registered as if an individual cultivar for the
purposes of documenting this useful taxonomic grouping and establishing
the originator or nominant in question. The
group may be based on a trademarked entity such as FANCY® PINK, FANCY®
WHITE, FANCY® RED, FANCY® PINK WITH WHITE EYE, FANCY® DARK RED, and
FANCY® HOT PINK.
Principle 31. A.
Cultivar Subgroup Registration.
When a group of cultivars exceeds at least 8 taxa in terms of the
combination of two major traits or two accepted Cultivar Groups or a
clean genetic merger thereof, the Subgroup may be registered.
Principle 31. B. Cultivar Groups, SERIES, and trademarks. The
group registration will be termed a SERIES if based on a
trademarked entity such as FANCY® PINK,
FANCY® WHITE, FANCY® RED, FANCY® PINK WITH WHITE EYE, FANCY® DARK RED,
and FANCY® HOT PINK. This would known as the FANCY® Series but had
their been 'Fancy White', 'Fancy Pink' it would be called the (Fancy
Group) in the context of cultivar nomenclature
Principle
32. Annual Surveys for Improvement. OROC will conduct
annual surveys of major plant originators,
their organizations, and students to determine new ways to serve them
better, communicate more information freely, efficienty, and in the
most useful formats. The OROC Board of Directors is tasked for an
annual action plan for implementation of the best survey ideas.
Principle
33. OROC Archives and INCA.
We will archive all online and scanned documents in digital form to
form an OROC Archive that will be distributed to all Board of Director
members, Certified Cultivar Registrars (CCR), and selected universities
for long-term storage and safe-keeping. Cultivar.org's
INCA (Internet Nursery Catalog Archive) already has more than
40
gigabytes of cultivar description data since 2000 and will also be used
in this archiving project. Due to copyright restrictions on nursery
catalogs, academic journals, many websites, and formal books, the
archive cannot be made available to the public. Our internal
distribution is solely for purposes of maintaining the information over
future years without loss of information as the internet or author's
remove their contents.
Principle
34. OROC Non-profit Status.
The OROC Board of Directors will consider and personally fund
conversion of this group to an indendent non-profit corporation at such
time it deems appropriate and helpful to the mission.
No fees, taxes, or other considerations will be charged for
administration of the OROC program.
Principle
35, Respect for Patent and PBR Processes. We
will respect the needs and requests of any originator to follow Plant
Patent and Plant Breeders Rights rules and not interfere in those
processes by premature communication or distribution of plant data.
Principle 35.A.
We do reserve the right to publish knowledge of a cultivar if it
appears in existing publications or is clearly on display in admissible
areas of a public garden,
and do so on the ground that Horticultural Media have access to this
same plant imagery and data.
Principle
36. Selection and Role of CCR. Whenever
possible, Commisioned Cultivar Registrars (CCR) will be selected for
broad knowledge of many plant types and genera so they assist each
other in backup roles for others when unavailable and to educate
themselves on a richer diversity of plants. We wish to avoid dependence
on any one or two people for individual genera processing and thus have
wider, deeper expertise from collaboration.
Principle 36.A.
CCR and the Board will have a ready pool of specialists available to
assist the CCR in specific genera situations and complex or difficult
decisions.
Principle
37. Multiple submission tools and forms. We
want the data whether by little or much effort, simple to complex, and
so OROC will accomodate all originators with whatever level of time,
devotion, detail focus, or control they wish when telling OROC about
their new creation. When possible we will accept cultivar
registrations with these styles of tools: 1) Just Tell Us. A simple
email providing whatever data and links they can, 2) a simple short
form that can but cut and pasted into email for even more information,
and 3) a much more extensive, digital tool allowing capture of
submitted images, Google maps, complex morphological radio and check
boxes, more details history, social media feeds, multiple links and
email approaches, and all available, powerful and yet useful
techologies.
Principle 37.A.
Mandate for registration tool innovation.
Our volunteers including CCR and Board of Directors will at all time
run experiments with new data submission and communication tools to not
only offer better tools but new alteratives to familiar, existing, and
more traditional ones. OROC staff will at all times educate themselves
on new, affordable, rational communication tools, especially those free
or at low cost to OROC, and always free to our consumers, learning from
every new tool or platform, modifying them with skill, and always
learning to be more, preserve more, and share more for the least
possible effort and expense.
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