Glo betta hybrid and legal problems?

I love the fact of breeding betta and just started a little while ago, but i wanted to know about breeding glo betta and normal betta together in addition to learning about the patent on them.

I wanted to breed a dumbo ear and a yellow glo betta, but I was wondering if I could technically sell them or at least give them to family and friends. this is because I do not have the space to keep the betta I breed for long term due to space constraints. I do have the space to keep a good portion but definitely not all of them. plus the fact that I don't know how the fry would do if I mixed both of them or what it would look like. I assume that it would look like a koi betta with big fins and neon colors.

please help me figure this out soon because I am really excited to possibly do this.

p.s. would the fry still be glo fish even though it is a hybrid?

 

From my understanding, the last time i read any legal stuff on glo-fish, selling is where you can get in trouble with the patent stuff and whatnot.

Granted, i haven't read anything on it for a couple years, so may have changed.

 

If you got them to breed, you would have a few glow fish fry and a few dumbo fry, and likely 70 percent won't be dumbo or glo fish. You Likely will not be able to even give them to a pet store for free. In not saying that the fish will be ugly or deformed or anything, but there will be legal issues for them to consider with the glo fish, and contracts with their current breeders to consider. And there just isn't enough shelf space. So You will need to have a plan for what could be 500 fish that live up to ten years and need to be kept separately.

 

Considering the degree of genetic diversity in the prospective parent fish I doubt there will be many viable offspring anyways. I'd not try such a frankenfish experiment.

In not saying that the fish will be ugly or deformed or anything

I would say so. Very much to expect.

The legal issue is only the final straw in my opinion. Leave it be. Not worth the trouble.

 

I looked up glofish legalese a while ago, mostly because I didn't believe they had it locked up so tight, but they do.

In a nutshell they can sue you just for breeding them intentionally. The only loophole left open is if it happens purely by accident.

Of course they have to catch wind of you doing it somehow.

But they have it locked down if you breed them intentionally and show intent to sell trade or barter with them. It's highly patented intellectual property and protected from it being stolen by anyone looking to gain somehow or damage the image of their product by selling trading or gifting inferior products

They can't stop fish being fish and breeding, however if they find out somehow, expect a letter from a lawyer to cease and desist from your activity at the very least, 1 time maybe it's an accident and a warning that you can't breed them, 2nd time I'd expect to be served a notice to appear in court.
They wouldn't have gone to that extent to patent everything to protect it if they weren't going to work to enforce it.

 

I looked up glofish legalese a while ago, mostly because I didn't believe they had it locked up so tight, but they do.

In a nutshell they can sue you just for breeding them intentionally. The only loophole left open is if it happens purely by accident.

Of course they have to catch wind of you doing it somehow.

But they have it locked down if you breed them intentionally and show intent to sell trade or barter with them. It's highly patented intellectual property and protected from it being stolen by anyone looking to gain somehow or damage the image of their product by selling trading or gifting inferior products

They can't stop fish being fish and breeding, however if they find out somehow, expect a letter from a lawyer to cease and desist from your activity at the very least.
They wouldn't have gone to that extent to patent everything to protect it if they weren't going to work to enforce it.

hey then i guess I'm just going to put one glo and one reg in a divided tank and accidentally take out the divider and not separate the fish. I am a very forgetful person. plus, if it looks like a glowing koi betta with beautiful fins i would call theirs an inferior product. i mean its all in the eye of the beholder you know. but thank you for the info

If you got them to breed, you would have a few glow fish fry and a few dumbo fry, and likely 70 percent won't be dumbo or glo fish. You Likely will not be able to even give them to a pet store for free. In not saying that the fish will be ugly or deformed or anything, but there will be legal issues for them to consider with the glo fish, and contracts with their current breeders to consider. And there just isn't enough shelf space. So You will need to have a plan for what could be 500 fish that live up to ten years and need to be kept separately.

i have a very extended fam

 

hey then i guess I'm just going to put one glo and one reg in a divided tank and accidentally take out the divider and not separate the fish. I am a very forgetful person. plus, if it looks like a glowing koi betta with beautiful fins i would call theirs an inferior product. i mean its all in the eye of the beholder you know. but thank you for the info

i have a very extended fam

i have a very extended fam

I'm fairly certain if you breed them, you'll want to show off your success, or someone will want to show off their hybrid mix, and then the lawyers will come looking for you. and they won't be playing games and listening to being forgetful or how a male and female got together on accident. Might get away with that excuse on Tetras, but Bettas? I don't think so.

They also don't care about how pretty your fish looks, they care about who's been paying for the rights to breed their product and distribute them under the brand and your knock off of their product is going to get you sued just as fast as trying to produce fake Nike shoes, whether you sold them or not.
I have no idea how seriously they take it, and if they are paying people full time to scour the internet and social media for it happening or not, but again, I don't think they would have went to all this trouble to protect it, to have someone saying "woops a male and a female betta just happened to share a tank together one just happening to be a glofish totally accidental, and now I have all these babies I need to get rid of whoops!"

They know darn well if they don't protect their intellectual property and reproduction of it, they are gonna lose out on all the research and development cost to produce it big time.
Just saying, you were warned they might take it very seriously if they catch wind of it and most likely will take you to court over it. It's all I can do, let you know. up to you what you want to do after that.

 

tetras it is, plus i would not just be giving them to any family members

 

Just saying=
Hybrid glofish would stand out more then regular glofish, as you will never find a hybrid glofish at a petstore, and you wont be able to claim that you bought it at a petstore. So make sure that anyone you give them to, and anyone who visits those people, knows that you cant post a picture of it ever! Another factor- most petstore bettas are already to old to be bread. I understand your excitment, but it might be better to choose somthing else to breed. Or consider hatch and raising killifish, there are sooo many choices and you could join the killi fish of america club! The American Killifish Association,

 

I think if they had even remotely decent lawyers posts on fishlore saying you might accidentally remove a divider would come up if you were ever to try defend it in court

 

I think if they had even remotely decent lawyers posts on fishlore saying you might accidentally remove a divider would come up if you were ever to try defend it in court

you know what fair enough but i do have to clean it

Just saying=
Hybrid glofish would stand out more then regular glofish, as you will never find a hybrid glofish at a petstore, and you wont be able to claim that you bought it at a petstore. So make sure that anyone you give them to, and anyone who visits those people, knows that you cant post a picture of it ever! Another factor- most petstore bettas are already to old to be bread. I understand your excitment, but it might be better to choose somthing else to breed. Or consider hatch and raising killifish, there are sooo many choices and you could join the killi fish of america club! The American Killifish Association,

why are they to old tho, wouldent the pet store want a good rep and sell them younger so that they live for longer

 

I was curious about Glofish genetics, and decided to do my own experiment. I did successfully breed 2 Glofish bettas. The results were a bit surprising. About 75% of the babies were green glo bettas, just like both parents, the other 25% were normal white bettas. I know I couldn't get rid of them, so it was survival of the fittest. I now have a tank filled with adult offspring.

Glofish Bettas have been discontinued, so I'm not sure what the future of this variety is, most likely it will be lost to the hobby, and that's a shame. I think 90% of the issues with the fish for sale in stores are due to the way they are kept. In my batch of offspring I found no unusual deformities, or obvious signs of blindness.