Chapter 15
Flower Power! Applying for a Plant Patent
In This Chapter
◆ Patented plants = money trees
◆ What you can protect
◆ How to make application
◆ Where to find answers to your questions
There is a demand for an expanding plant pallet and American inventors are meeting it. Innovative and unique flora that bloom profusely all year, free of pests or slow growing, no prune plants that offer flowers, fragrance, berries and fall color, the plant inventor has found a way to create it, often resulting in a vastly improved, aesthetically pleasing landscape with lower maintenance costs and the need for fewer pesticides.
—Joel M. Lerner, landscape columnist, The Washington Post
Question: What do the following plants have in common: a hybrid tea rose named Ruiyel, a lantana named Mongen, an azalea named Panfilia, a chrysanthemum named Golden State, and a nectarine tree named Western Pride?
Answer: They were all awarded U.S. patents.
The USPTO has issued more than 19,000 plant patents to date. Henry Bosenberg received Plant Patent No. 1 in 1931 for a climbing rose. In 1997, Plant Patent No. 10,000 was awarded to breeder David Lemon in a ceremony at the U.S. Botanical Garden in Washington, D.C., for his Regal geranium named Lois. Today, Art Unit 1661 (the Art Unit within the USPTO that handles plants) averages circa 750 patents a year.
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