Naming Laceleaf X Arakawa Japanese Maple

[zita]

But I would like have some form of claim on it first, so the next person does not run away with it.

again, do it yourself with your friends. You got the ability, the space......why throw away whats all about?
And then share it with as much people as possible.

All the "own name thing", hey best to drop that for your own personal freedom. Concentrate on the plant.
Thats how success develop.

 

[Rivian]

Figured you talked to Esveld since the topic of matsumurae / palmatum split was brought up towards the end of a recent MrMaple podcast by him.

As far as naming conventions:
- dont mix different languages (chishio improved being the prime example, should be shin chishio), (your name can be combined with any language) ("Arakawa dissected" -> incorrect)
- latin has really fallen out of favor, I think the consensus leans towards reserving it for scientific classification down to species and subspecies, not cultivars. At least in Acer. It can sound like youre granting the tree a rank it hasnt earned, like stolen valour

My 2 cents:
- there are thousands of JM cultivars, if you want to make an impression you have to stop people from scrolling past your cultivar when it pops up in inventory lists. So capitalize on this unique combination of traits you have at hand, as many have suggested. - if you choose a Japanese name, people might recognize the "arakawa" part as rough bark, but youd probably lose the appeal of the dissected aspect for anyone not speaking Japanese, just reading the cultivar name.
Jelle's Lacebark or something in the spirit of that would work, or Rough Bark Lace. English for broadest appeal and feature advertisement.

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Figured you talked to Esveld since the topic of matsumurae / palmatum split was brought up towards the end of a recent MrMaple podcast by him.

As far as naming conventions:
- dont mix different languages (chishio improved being the prime example, should be shin chishio), (your name can be combined with any language) ("Arakawa dissected" -> incorrect)
- latin has really fallen out of favor, I think the consensus leans towards reserving it for scientific classification down to species and subspecies, not cultivars. At least in Acer. It can sound like youre granting the tree a rank it hasnt earned, like stolen valour

My 2 cents:
- there are thousands of JM cultivars, if you want to make an impression you have to stop people from scrolling past your cultivar when it pops up in inventory lists. So capitalize on this unique combination of traits you have at hand, as many have suggested. - if you choose a Japanese name, people might recognize the "arakawa" part as rough bark, but youd probably lose the appeal of the dissected aspect for anyone not speaking Japanese, just reading the cultivar name.
Jelle's Lacebark or something in the spirit of that would work, or Rough Bark Lace. English for broadest appeal and feature advertisement.

Or drop the bark and just name Rough Lace or Jelle’s Rough Lace

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

buuuut... I am not in the commercial propagation business! Only if I would protect the variety (400 USD/yr just for EU, + 3-5000E upfront cost) AND find a commercial propagator to pay licences. But.. A lot of trees to be sold before you hit those numbers.

Anybody experience? Is it at all worth protecting?

These costs, plus the legal costs of defending a plant patent, in court, when a violator is discovered, is part of the reason the majority of named plant cultivars never get patented. Don't worry too much about the name. 'Jelle's Lace-leaf Cork-bark' is the perfect name for your non-patented clone. Read your contract with your propagator. Once you sell stock to the wholesaler, you likely will also be turning over naming rights to them. For example, it might become 'Isle's Laceleaf Corkbark' patent pending in their next catalog. And because you accepted a sufficiently large money transfer, you will be quite happy to see the new name. Let the professional company worry about defending the patent, because doing so is quite expensive.

Also be aware the company that purchases the plant and rights to it may require you to stop commercially propagating the maple. Normally this applies to plants that are sold for money, not to plants propagated for personal use, (like friends and family where no money changes hands).

 

[Pugs]

So many points I'd like to make, but I'm a newbie here, and with reading all the love being expressed for newbies, I'll just mention Acer palmatum 'Snow Kitten', named by the original finder of the mutation, has been sold under the names 'Yama yuki', 'Yuki yama', and 'Elmer' too. Once released into the wild, there is little chance of control.

Best of luck and it looks to be a very nice tree.

 

[Glaucus]

There are going to be rules set, maybe by the RHS or some maple society. For example a rhododendron cultivar cannot be named 'Jelle's Lace-leaf Cork-bark' because it is too many words. And maybe - symbols are also not allowed. A nitpicking detail, but there's going to be some rules like that for maple cultivars as well. You can probably find them with a google. And otherwise people like Cor will know. For rhododendron, a variety registration is free.

As for patents, this is not legal advice since I am not a lawyer, nur plant IP expert. But in the EU, this is a Plant Breeder Right. Cultivars have a 'PBR' behind their names if they have their breeder rights protected.
In the US, there are also plant patents, and these are not the same. For PBR registration, you have to pay for some type of test to conform distinctness, uniformity and stability aka the DUS test. Which is a few hundred euro's for ornamentals.
For both patents and PBR, the right is for the discoverer for patents, and for the breeder for PBR. And in this case, that would always Jelle. If anyone else would try to claim a patent or PBR, they would be committing fraud.
That said, I guess it is possible for Jelle to sell away the exclusive rights to produce a plant to a nursery or commercial propagator. And then technically he wouldn't be able to produce it himself commercially.
I really doubt Cor from Esveld would try to rip you off based on his attitude to spreading around cultivars in the Mr Maple podcast. But Esveld is probably also not going to help you make a good buck off your cultivar, since they are not a large producer.

The margins on ornamental plants generally are not very high so this system only works if everyone plays fair. People aren't really suing over plant patents or breeder rights of ornamentals. It is not really worth the money and the effort.
It wouldn't be too difficult to take a patented plant, register a new cultivar name for it, and then start propagating that. And then the original breeder would have to sue and prove in court that your variety is actually theirs under a new name. Just to force you to buy a license, which is probably less than a euro for every plant. You need to sell a lot of plants for it to be even worth it to do the paperwork on all of this.
But if you have a new tomato or apple which can be produced at a rate of several million fruits a year over the next few decades, then that's different. I can see some ornamentals like roses come close. You have to sell quite a few maples before you can pay the costs for registering, negotiating a license, doing all the paperwork, keeping track of how many licences plants are produced, paying the license, and then also hiring lawyers plus an expert witness to build a legal case for when someone violates the PBR or patent.

Maybe a few other businesses that produce maples do have the volume to cover the costs. Not sure how nurseries handle plants with PBR they produce when the volumes are low.