Howard M. Cohn - Patent Attorney

North Coast Patent & Trademark Office - Howard M. Cohn & Associates

A plant patent is a grant by the government to an inventor who has "invented" or discovered and asexually reproduced a distinct and new variety of plant, other than a tuber propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state. This grant gives the plant patent owner the right to exclude others from asexually reproducing the plant and from using, offering for sale, or selling the plant so reproduced, or any of its parts, throughout the United States, or from importing the plant so reproduced, or any parts thereof, into the United States.

The protection under a plant patent lasts for twenty years, beginning from the filing date of the application.

A Plant Patent Application must disclose a new plant variety that:

		Has been asexually reproduced by the applicant;
		Has not have been introduced to the public nor sold or offered for sale or in public use more than one year before filing of the application; and
		Has originated either as a result of an act by the applicant, e.g., cross-pollination, treatment, selection and/or breeding efforts, or as a seedling found by the applicant in a cultivated area, or as a spore or mutation found by the applicant.

A plant patent application generally includes a specification and claim describing the new plant, a "drawing," usually in the form of one or more color photographs, and the filing fee. Two copies of the a color photograph showing the distinguishing features(s) must be submitted when the color of the flower or plant is a distinguishing characteristic.

The description of the plant variety should be as reasonably complete and detailed and expressed in botanical terms and form followed in standard botanical textbooks. It is mandatory that the specification include the origin or parentage of the plant sought to be patented and the geographic location and manner the plant has been asexually reproduced (cuttings, buddings, grafting, etc.). When color is a distinctive feature of the plant, the color should be positively identified in the specification by reference to a designated color atlas or dictionary. The Royal Horticulture Society Color Chart is preferred. When the plant originated as a newly found seedling, the specification must particularly point out the location and character of the area where the seedling was discovered to establish that it was not found in an uncultivated state.

- Patents -

Plant Patents



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