I need your help with a decision…
Here’s my understanding of the facts:
- Cascade (USDA 56013) is a public hop variety that was released by the USDA in the early 1970s
- Cascade is now grown in NZ
- Taiheke® is a registered trademark of nzhops
- The nzhops website states that Taiheke® = USDA 56013
- Since Cascade is a public variety, anyone on the planet can grow it but other NZ growers & merchants can’t use the Taiheke® tradename
I’m not a hop breeder or a lawyer, so please correct me if I got any of that 
wrong.
Previously, we had both NZ Cascade and NZ Taiheke available as unique options in our variety menu. Somewhat recently, these were merged because I knew they were genetically identical but wasn’t aware that Taiheke had been trademarked (or that it was even possible to trademark a public variety). So now I need to decide whether to:
- Merge all data, treat them as 1 variety (ie “NZ Cascade/NZ Taiheke®”)
- Separate all data, treat NZ Cascade & NZ Taiheke® as separate varieties
0 voters
This may seem unimportant at first glance, but I’m effectively asking whether we should combine or separate data (price history, inventories, charts, etc.) for all relevant listings & trading volume for years to come. And there will probably be more of this in the future. It’s a slippery slope, so I want to make the right decision and set a precedent for all future cases.
What do you think? Please cast your vote above.