Not an ad or anything but I got it from light.bio if you’re curious. Super cool product, I’ve been waiting for a company to successfully bring a bioluminescent plant to the market for a decade and it finally happened!

  • Hello_there@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    Man… Fuck the US patent system. “Our Firefly Petunias are protected under patent, and as such, propagation and breeding are not permitted. These petunias are sold exclusively for personal use.”

    • Emil Muzz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      ‘Personal use’ covers propagation and breeding by an individual, for non-commercial purposes. Nobody’s saying -you- can’t try to propigate or breed them, but you could be libel if you try to make money off the endeavor.

      In this case I would say the patent system is working as intended, in that it gives some protection to LightBio’s investment into creating the firefly. While I would LOVE to see an expanded variety available from other -commercial- growers (with MUCH larger operations and funding), I don’t want it to be at the expense of LightBio’s effort, or the commercial success they’ve earned for creating it in the first place.

    • Zetta@mander.xyzOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      8 months ago

      ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it is what it is, however petunias are very easy to propagate and you can do whatever you want with your plant as long as you aren’t selling it.

      I already have a second one growing from a cutting I took.

      • Hello_there@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        8 months ago

        Ok, I’ll take back some of my hate. I thought they had put some sort of monsanto-like ‘if you try to reproduce it on your own they’ll die’ gene.
        If it’s not ‘pay $40 if you want another plant’ then that’s more reasonable.

      • Zoolander@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        Did you do anything special with the cutting? I want to keep growing a few more of these and maybe save some for next year.

        • Zetta@mander.xyzOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          7 months ago

          I just dipped the base of it in root growth hormone powder before planting.

    • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      8 months ago

      To be fair, they probably spent years of time, effort and money to design this product. Why should someone else be able to propagate it and profit from their blood sweat and tears?