Polly, I'm not trying to breed a scab. I have been licensed in the past to propagate some protected material and am just trying to share with those who purchase such material the seriousness of infringements. Yes, I have signed such agreements. I have also seen such agreements on boxes and packing slips and order confirmations, and in the broker's catalogues. Some suppliers are more thorough than others, but it's common. In this case just accepting the material is a consent. The inspectors who visit will not be from the plant breeder, but from the group who administers patent rights and royalties. There are more than one, of course. They can and have counted my stock, asked for my suppliers' names, checked for proper tagging. One year the supplier who sent me some cuttings failed to supply the tags with the order. In this case, I had to give the inspector the name of the company who did this. Poo Poo also rolls uphill. I'm sure they may have been contacted. I'm enclosing a link to a samply agreement. Such notices may be on the boxes, on the packing slips, sent with order acknowledgements, or in the broker catalogues. If you don't see one anywhere, just having paid a royalty fee on it should alert you there are implied rights of the patent owner. The inspectors I have met were very professional, courteous and just doing their job. They weren't gestapo. They have as much right to be in my greenhouses as the nursery inspector. It's a license thing. I am sure they are empowered to deal with suspicious situations in various ways and a lot of what they do would be governed by the attitude and actions of the growers. Plant breeders do btw take people to court. Hope this is link in informative. Here is a link that might be useful: sample non-propagation agreement

Candy, sweet Pirate table for Talk Like a Pirate Day. I never take time to see what kind of day is being celebrated. Glad you had some things to put this one together so you could share with us. The two silver lanterns are pretty and look good with your other lantern and gold coins for the cp. Makes me want to come over and go looking for the pirates chest full of jewels and more money! Do you have the tea on? Like the way you tied the napkins and set them on top of the plates. Great to see your steins again. They look so good with this setting. So glad you used your pewter plates with this setting. Reminds me I have mine stashed some where and need to pull them out and set a ts with them. This one's for you. What was the pirate's golf score?..........parrrr Punk

I went with my two nephews (16 and 18) last night - just for something silly to do. It's cute. Not an Oscar contender, but cute. We went to the non-3D version.

More stolen goods: An old pirate was sitting in a pub, a young new pirate walked in and sat a few stools away. After watching the old pirate for a while just staring at a bowl of stew, the young guy asked if he was going to eat the stew. The old pirate said "nope", and kept staring... The young one asked if he could have it, the bowl was passed down. The young pirate started gobbling down the stew, when he got to the bottom of the bowl, he saw a rat and threwup the stew back into the bowl. The old pirate said, "Yep, that's just about where I got to". one more: A pirate walks into a pub, wearing the usual pirate attire but with the unusual addition of a ship's wheel shoved down the front of his breeches. The bartender says "hey mate, what's that ship's wheel doing there?". The pirate says "Arrrrr, it's drvin' me nuts!"