Latest / Hydroponics Daily / Breaking News: Osram takes legal action against Growers!

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Breaking News: Osram takes legal action against Growers! · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello there and welcome back to
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  Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
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  I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp.
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  Now normally we do a feature on each episode about a way of growing a technique,
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  a way to grow a crop or some sort of new technology, but today we've got some
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  breaking news and it's really interesting.
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  It affects everyone in hydroponics virtually and that's because an LED company,
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  Osram, is suing or taking legal action against growers.
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  So they're not taking legal action, or they may be taking legal action against
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  all the companies that they believe have infringed their patents on their LED
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  lights, but they're also going after the growers,
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  which is an interesting strategy because you are basically,
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  in life.
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  My dad always said to me, never go after people who are the heroes in children's books.
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  And farmers are one of those things never go
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  after nurses doctors firemen and never
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  go after farmers because they're the heroes in children's books and
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  just as the labor party in the uk has found when
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  you go after the farmers it's a hell of a bad pr game
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  and osram the lighting company they've
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  made all lights for years and decades and decades they've they
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  also make led lights they are actually they've got
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  really good lights but they're suing people who
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  are using products that they say are infringing their
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  patents and that includes growers and farmers they're not
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  and this is because Osram have gone into facilities greenhouses and seen products
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  being used that they believe are infringing their patent now this is this has
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  been around for a couple of weeks now this news and it's been really contentious
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  because you would think they would just go after the companies that they believe
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  have infringed their patent,
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  but no, they've gone after the users as well.
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  So certainly made a lot of headlines and Osram have got a lot of publicity from
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  it, whether it's the right publicity or not,
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  whether as a grower, you would then use Osram or I know a lot of growers who
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  would say, you know, stick it
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  up your proverbial, not going to use Osram because they're suing my mates.
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  But you would also think Osram are probably doing this to put you off using
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  other people's lights and the people they claim are infringing their patents.
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  And if they prove it, then the companies that have infringed the patent,
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  that's some really bad PR.
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  So it's a gamble, but potentially it's a good gamble for Osram. Who knows?
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  It's certainly high risk suing growers.
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  I could only imagine they're doing it to put the growers off,
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  more growers off from using growers from these lights.
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  But the big news today is that the company that
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  they're claiming has infringed their patent is hawthorne horticulture and their
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  two brands and their two brands are agrilux and gavita now gavita were a big
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  brand in hydroponics for the last 10 years i think they've come not they're
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  not selling in the uk anymore that i'm aware of.
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  And very recently that i think they they doubt
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  they hawthorne rationalized their led
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  offering and so they did introduce in
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  a 1000 watt led recently but i think that's no
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  longer available in the uk and so both if
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  you're using agrilux or govita brands and you're in a big greenhouse i
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  would definitely not let any representative of a
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  company that has osram into your grow facility and that includes resellers agronomists
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  anyone connected with lighting refurbishment because i think what's happened
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  here is some of the resellers have gone into the the grow rooms and and the
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  greenhouses and said oh can we have a look around and then seeing these products that they claim have.
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  Have infringed the patent and gone back to osram and so
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  if you are using agrolux or
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  gavita products don't let anyone who has
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  got a connection to osram into your grow room otherwise you could
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  be slapped with some legal action so it's
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  a really contentious issue there's a lot of debate on linkedin in
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  professional vertical farming and greenhouse
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  horticulture at the moment about this topic and yeah
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  it's also highlight horticulture have
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  today hit back and said that they stand
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  with their customers yeah you would hope they would because this
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  is i would say it's an existential threat to
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  those brands that they have agrilux and gavita
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  if they if growers get sued and
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  have massive fines or worse for infringing
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  those patents then then yeah they've got a
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  lot of on their face and they've got a lot of explaining to do to those
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  growers the good news is for os rom and gavita that hawthorne
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  is was owned by who the miracle grow based in ohio and until recently i think
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  they've they've done a special legal thing where hawthorne is no longer part
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  of it but could be brought back at some other period perhaps this was known
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  about when hawthorne was split off from.
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  From miracle grow because it was a it was
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  a risk that was already known about and potential legal
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  action so miracle grow and
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  the problem is that and why it's so contentious as well
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  is that hawthorne horticulture is a bit of
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  a love them or hate them brand in horticulture hydroponics
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  they've got connections to glyphosate roundup and who owns roundup oh yeah monsanto
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  and bea so monsanto are really big contentious product because they're the gm
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  crop the original gm crop company so monsanto bea hawthorne.
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  Miracle grow that they're all connected not necessarily
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  owned by each other but there's a lot of
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  people in the sort of legal cannabis
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  sector that don't deal with hawthorne horticulture
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  because of that so yeah this is another string to those sorts of people's bow
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  if if growers are being sued for it so what have hawth what hawthorne said they're
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  concerned but that by pursuing legal action against the growers we would understand
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  acted in good faith from purchasing their lights.
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  Osram may be signaling an intent to involve other end users.
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  So it could go beyond the current growers that are being sued.
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  Let's make one thing clear. We stand with our customers and feel compelled to
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  address what we view as Osram's aggressive litigation strategy.
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  Yeah, I mean, Osram have probably put millions and millions of pounds into their
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  lights and they've probably spent millions patenting them.
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  So you only do that if you've got the will and the money to protect those patents and enforce them.
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  So the problem is is that a lot
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  of led companies are being led products are
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  being copied in certain countries and perhaps
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  there's an issue there where hawthorne
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  didn't realize they were infringing on someone's patent who knows the facts
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  will come out in the court case actively hawthorne say they're
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  actively working with their suppliers and manufacturers to ensure the interest
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  of their customers are protected for the fullest
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  extent possible moreover hawthorne along
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  with our other suppliers and manufacturers stand behind our
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  products and intellectual property but they
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  are also hotfooting it back to their suppliers to ask them what's going
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  on strong hawthorne strongly believe the products in
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  question do not infringe any valid or enforceable patent i would think in the
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  america if you if this is the case then if hawthorne are telling the truth then
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  they've got a good reason to countersuit osram haven't they so that would be
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  interesting because there's a big.
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  Issue with damage to their brand.
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  So Hawthorne are confident in their products and committed to explore all avenues
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  to support our customers.
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  If I was a customer of Hawthorne, of Gavita, and I was being sued by Osram,
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  I would want full financial support from them because they put the issue squarely on their plate.
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  Hawthorne also notes that the patents currently asserted by in the litigation
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  against the growers are specific to certain jurisdictions being the United States and Germany.
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  So if you're in the United States
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  and Germany that's where you need to be particularly worried about this.
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  The industry needs to understand the precise scope and limitations of such claims.
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  To our knowledge the specific patents forming the basis of the current litigation
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  against the growers do not extend beyond these named jurisdictions. So.
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  Hawthorne say it's just a German and an American issue.
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  Furthermore, they're disappointing that Osram mentioned AgriLux by name in framing its allegations.
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  We too are a customer of Osram. So it turns out that AgriLux,
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  Gavita, Hawthorne, they also buy diodes from Osram.
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  And Osram gave them, as a customer, no prior indication that they were taking this legal action.
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  It's a real mess, isn't it? and it's only going to get juicier so if you want
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  to know more the best place to look is a website called haughty daily because
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  they broke the story and kudos to them because a lot of horticultural,
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  news outlets don't have the balls to actually release something contentious
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  but this one definitely is so well done to the journalists at haughty daily
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  who've done that hawthorn are asking their growers who've got concerns to contact
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  their marketing manager Rosa DeLisa at Gavita International.
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  So Hawthorne haven't mentioned Gavita in their press release,
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  but then they're also asking anyone who's concerned to contact Gavita.
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  So it sounds like Gavita are involved in this.
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  Yeah, as I say, it's a massive one. Anyone in hydroponics,
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  horticulture in general, has heard of these names and leds
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  have had a massive area of been a massive area of innovation over
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  the last 10 years and people have chosen to protect these patents leds are a
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  good one to patent because you can it's very difficult to hide an infringement
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  of a patent because it's there the lighting structure so the manufacturing process
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  is is evident in there whereas if you look at myself we.
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  We manufacture fertilisers, it's very difficult to tell if somebody is infringing your patent.
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  So I would never patent a liquid fertiliser or a biostimulant because A,
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  I don't have millions of pounds to enforce it like Osram do.
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  You've got to be able to enforce it. You've got to be able to file the patent
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  in all the jurisdictions. I don't have the money to do that.
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  And also you've got to be able to prove that somebody has infringed your patent.
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  And that's really difficult with fertilisers and biostimulants so
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  you only do that you only file a patent in fertilizers and
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  biostimulants if you are looking
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  to get investment from the city of london or wall street because investors
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  love having a patent because they can hold it and say look we own something
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  we own some intellectual property but really
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  you you just want to keep it as a special
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  source proprietary technology secret ingredients and
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  protect it that way you know and but osram
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  can't do that because they are a manufacturer of lights so
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  they went down the patent route and also because they've got investors and
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  so have Hawthorne so really a
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  really juicy story there for you today and watch this
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  space because it's going to it's going to develop but because it's a legal story
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  it's going to drip drip drip over the next year or so which is not going to
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  be great for the growers concerned because they're going to be worried there's
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  going to be a lot of risk hanging over them and they're going to be dragged
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  into courts potentially if my money was on it this will be settled out of court
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  by Hawthorne between Hawthorne and Osram,
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  and no growers will be seeing the inside of a courtroom.
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  But you never know. You never know. Stranger things have happened.
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  That's been Hydroponics Daily for today.
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  If I've got anything wrong through any of the parties in this,
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  just give me a message and I'll have a look at it and probably take down the
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  episode if I'm about to be sued by one of them. They seem to be very litigious.
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  And yeah, if anyone wants to give me a
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  free led light and you know where to find me i doubt
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  i'm going to get any free led lights out of this after this episode if
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  you've got a an osram light if you've got
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  a gavita light if you've got an agrilux light
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  or you know somebody does share it with them share this
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  episode with them so they can get shit scared they're
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  going to get sued and if you've had that shared with you i normally say if this
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  episode has been shared with you then you're the person who shared it you do
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  your pint but you probably don't you probably owe them a i don't know a cold
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  egg sandwich that's been hydroponics daily for today if you could share this
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  episode or share the podcast on instagram,
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  that would be an amazing amazing thing if
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  you found value from it any any of our episodes of last year just
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  take a screenshot of your podcast episode
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  as it streams on your phone take a screenshot post that onto instagram and say
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  you've got to listen to hydroponics daily it's da bomb that would mean the world
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  to me because it would help spread the word and make more people in the horticulture
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  world listening to it and we can grow the community thank you very much for
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  listening until tomorrow i've been russell goodbye.