ownership rights to frozen semen - questions - Page 1

Need to find some facts from those who might have experience with ownership of frozen semen.

Co-owned stud dog, the frozen semen is in the name of the co-owner at the moment as "owner of semen".  This co-owner is going to sell the stud dog to the other co-owner.  The registration of the dog will be transferred to the sole ownership of the co-owner who does not own the frozen semen. 

What paperwork, forms etc if any need to be completed, signed by the co-owner etc to ensure complete rights to the frozen semen?  The owner of the frozen semen wants to maintain full ownership of the frozen semen even though the name will no longer be on the dogs' registration papers - including, full rights to sign for litters (AKC) and ability to sell the frozen semen, sign off for the new ownership if it's sold.

any experiences to share?  AKC has been unresponsive to inquiries so far.  Is it very complicated, risky?  Or best to just keep the co-ownership in name only for the use/rights to the frozen semen.

I think the repro vet who did the collection would be the place to start with this question. The form you fill out when you do a collection has a line for "Owner of the dog" and another for "Owner of the semen," so I suspect they've dealt with this issue before.

Then I'd follow up with AKC and make sure things match their policy.

Basically once a dog is collected, the semen and the dog are treated as 2 different entities.  It can be broken down even further, each straw of the semen is it's own entity.  Someone can collect a dog they own, and later sell the dog to someone else, and still retains ownership of the semen collected.  Ownership of that semen, or portions of it, can be transfered to another party or parties irrespective of who owns the dog at any given time.

I agree with malndobe, I just had my male collected to be frozen yesterday, and that is basically what all the paperwork I had to sign said.  The repro vet that stores the semen should have any paperwork you need in regards to transferring ownership, etc.  Even if there is a co-owner on the AKC paperwork, whoever signed and stored the frozen semen is the owner of the semen.

The question is - did the other co-owner know of the collection and OK the collection to be in the prior mentioned co-owner's name in full?

This is a bit more than a single owner.  The collection facility should have the answer. Depneds on what documentation they required at point of collection. They should be requesting the AKC certificate at time of collection - that also depends if it is the current AKC certificate, as well.

As I said, the semen was collected and stored in the name and sole ownership of the co-owner who will be selling the dog to the other co-owner.  So say co-owners #1 and #2.  #2 is the owner of the semen now.  #2 will be selling the dog to co-owner #1.  Owner #1 will be sole owner of the dog on his registration papers once the sale is finalized.  ex-owner #2 will not be the co-owner of the dog anymore once the sale is finalized, but wants to be sure that the ownership of the semen is not questioned, that owner #2 can sign for all litters sired by the frozen semen and can sell the frozen semen without any signature or input from owner #1.

The semen is already in the name of owner #2 at the collection/storage facility.  On that paperwork, the "owner of the dog" is both owners, the "owner of the semen" is owner #2.  Any problems using the semen once owner #2 is no longer named on the registration papers as co-owner of the stud dog?

Owner #2 owns the semen and selling the dog doesn't effect that, they can use the semen or sell it to someone else any time they want to.  #1's ownership of the dog will have no effect on the ownership of the semen.

ok so what paperwork  if any needs to be completed before the dog is sold and ownership is transferred into #1's name only?  The only paperwork at this time is the vet's paperwork where the semen is stored.  Is there anything else that needs to be completed?

As far as I know, none.  I would contact the storage facility that has the semen to verify this, they will know all the ins and outs about it, but when I sold a dog I had collected I didn't do any extra paperwork, the semen was mine and stayed mine.