Thread by @JocelynBosse

Get ready for a GIANT avocado plant patent thread…

The most famous is, of course, “Hass” (#PlantPatent 139)

Many say it was the first plant patent for an avocado tree

But that’s not true…

The first patent for an avocado (#PlantPatent 100) was awarded to Mrs Jennie C. Gano, a year before the Hass patent.

Newspapers articles about the former seamstress described how she “found success with a little ranch and five dollars.”

Mrs Gano’s avocado had “glossy dark green” skin that sometimes turned purple.

Her trees took 2 years to mature and bore fruit in summer, compared to existing varieties like Fuerte that took 3-4 years to mature and bore fruit in the winter.

In 1917, Gano was lugging a suitcase full of avocados to Los Angeles markets and hotels because wholesalers wouldn’t handle the new fruit.

Twenty years later, she had 350 trees, a plant patent and a growing reputation – even calls from a vegetable oil company in Australia!

LA Times reported in 1936: “Her customers persist in calling it the Gano avocado, but she protests vigorously.

“There are too many named for people now,” she says. “I’d rather just call it No. 100—because it was the hundredth plant patent issued altogether under the new law.””

But let’s return to the Hass avocado patent, granted in August 1935.

The original tree was planted on the Hass family property in 1926, one of several Guatemalan seedlings purchased by Hass (avocados - genus Persea - are native to Mexico, Central America and the West Indies)

One seedling refused to accept a graft, so Hass ignored that tree.

It didn’t help that the tree bore fruit with rough, purple-black skin. Back then, Fuerte was the most popular variety, which had smooth green skin. Consumers saw purple-black skin as a sign of poor-quality fruit.

Rudolph Hass planned to uproot the recalcitrant tree.

But then, either his friends or children (the stories differ) ate the fruit—they loved its creamy and non-fibrous flesh—and convinced him to keep the tree.

Once he successfully grafted the tree onto a Mexican seedling as rootstock, Hass obtained a plant patent for the avocado.

He made a deal with the local Brokaw Nursery to grow and promote the variety, from which Hass received a 25% royalty on the sales.

But with the “ugly” skin, the Hass variety was a tough sell. It wasn’t til the 1970s that Hass overtook other varieties and became the most prominent avocado as we know it today.

Rudolph Hass did not live to see that popularity; he died in 1952.

He did not earn much from the patent. Some believe this was because the law didn’t prevent other growers from grafting Hass trees onto other trees – but that is 100% plant patent infringement.

More likely, the patent had simply expired by the time sales boomed.

The original Hass avocado “Mother Tree,” planted in 1926, had a very long life and grew 65 feet tall.

In 2002, the tree succumbed to root rot (a very common problem for avocado). Once chopped down, the wood from the tree was preserved by Brokaw Nursery – the original licensee.

In 1960, the New York Times reported that the second ever plant patent for an avocado was awarded to a James S. Reed.

This was completely incorrect: #PlantPatent 1,967 was the 18th avocado plant patent

I won’t go through all eighteen, but that article had overlooked patents such as:

“Rusterholz” (#PlantPatent 969), invented by Katherine Rusterholz

“Kimball” (#PlantPatent 1,438), invented by Ingegerd Isakson, which she assigned to Arthur S. Kimball and Weldon C. Wilkins

Lots of plant patents have been awarded for avocado varieties, but Hass continues to dominate commercial production

Even this patented variety is a “grandchild” of the Hass plant: #PlantPatent 9,709 called “Sir Prize”

But with the surging popularity of avocado in the last decade, breeders have experimented with new varieties.

One recent trend was giant avocados, like the one sold in Australia under the trade mark “Avozilla” (No. 1632344)

https://twitter.com/taliaualiitia/status/1016852175471800320

The “Avozilla” was a smash hit in Australia when it launched in 2018.

It was grown in Queensland under a licence from the South African owners

https://twitter.com/MattBrannRURAL/status/1016790634831609857

In the US and the UK, a giant avocado was launched much earlier:

“Carla” was #PlantPatent 16,594 (granted on May 30, 2006)

About 5 times the size of a Hass avocado, this variety was developed in the Dominican Republic.

The patent document includes this fabulous photo of a fruit-laden 4 year old Carla tree with the inventor, Carlos Castillo Pimentel (left), and his son, Karel Castillo (right), “for scale reference.”

By 2018, the company was producing 4.5 million Carla avocados a year

In September 2018, the owner of the Carla avocado, Agroindustria Ocoeña (AIOSA), commenced patent infringement proceedings against a Californian company, Fresh Directions.
bbc.com/mundo/noticias…

AIOSA had detected sales of clones of the Carla plant, albeit under a different name – the trademark “AVOPRO” (No. 2,371,720)

To help prove infringement, AIOSA’s lawyers even did DNA tests to confirm that the avocados were clones (and ate lots of guacamole…)

In their reply in October 2018, Fresh Directions didn’t dispute that they were selling Carla avocado clones

But they argued that the Carla plant patent wasn’t valid, amongst other defenses (without much detail)

Then things got awkward…

The inventor (who had passed away) had given his brother—Manuel Castillo Pimentel—permission to use buds and clippings from the Carla avocado tree

Where was this brother now?

He owned a company: Fresh Directions

“AIOSA was not aware of Fresh Directions’ implied rights to the patent and would not have brought suit had it known,” their lawyer told the Miami Herald in June 2019.

“AIOSA apologises for any inconvenience the litigation may have caused.”

🥑 the end 🥑
miamiherald.com/news/business/…

.@threadreaderapp unroll pls