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How do I look up whether a plant is still patented?

15 years ago

I'm wondering if there's an easy way to look up when a patent will expire for a particular plant. I don't know how long patents last and I'm wondering if there are a lot of named cultivars out there that never were patented in the first place.

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Comments (5)

remy_gw
15 years ago
Hi Christie,
Plant patents last 20 years. You can look up the patent on the US Patent Office Web site. You must type in PP#####(whatever the numbers are.) You must type in PP or you will get a regular patent. Do not leave a space between PP and the numbers, or you will get long lists of plants.
Hope this helps,
Remy

Here is a link that might be useful: Patent Search Page
razorback33
15 years ago
If a plant is patented. the the seller is required to enclose a plant identification tag with that plant, listing it's name and the fact that a patent has been applied for(PPAF) or if granted, the patent # (PPxxxxx). It will also include a statement that "asexual propagation prohibited".
If it does not include that tag, then I have always assumed that it is permissible to propagate the plant, at will.
There are many thousands of desirable cultivars that aren't patented, as many, many people are only happy to share their beauties without compensation. Only the greedy want coin for their fortuitous garden seedlings, TC culls, plant sports, "witches broom's", etc. (MHO)
If a patent is merited, with disclosure of extensive, long term breeding efforts, then I am likely to purchase a desirable plant. On the other hand, if no human effort was involved in development and it appears that the patent was applied for a species Ecotype(Morphotype), then I am disinclined to pay a royalty to obtain it. (Again, MHO)
Rb
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"And plants can be a named cultivar without being patented." This was kind of my point. There had been for over a hundred years before the craze of patenting really took hold in the 1990s. Classic varieties like the pastel Chrysanthemum 'Mary Stoker' moved from producer to producer and slowly acquired the reputation they have as time-tested varieties. If 'Mary Stoker' had been patented, it's possible the original producer would have thought after a couple years "OK, people are tired of Mary Stocker, we better start offering the brighter more saturated 'Mary's Daughter'" and the better plant would have been lost to commerce eventually. I was using a bit of hyperbole to say it is ruining horticulture, but I don't think it's a good trend, overall. Nurseries that grow their own plants on a purely ad hoc basis (i.e. and e.g., don't have any patented varieties...think the former Seneca Hill Perennials) tend to struggle anyhow. It's not like they were really posing a threat to huge mega producers like Sunny Border, Monrovia, etc. A lot of those producers breed their own plants. So the only ones they have to worry about poaching their strains is another large wholesaler. But somehow this didn't affect the industry as a whole until about 1990. (there were patented varieties before then but it was very uncommon) As for the species vs. cultivar debate, I do think it's valid to bring that up too. I like to have a mix of species and cultivars. A garden entirely of flashy cultivars would not be to my liking. In the world of rhododendrons, for example, people like Frank Fujioka and Jim Barlup have bred utterly amazing looking plants, but if you know rhododendrons, you wouldn't think in a million years that nature could have produced something similar. So, I see such plants as more of a accent to have here and there. I'd say in my perennial bed I only have a few plants that are obviously hybridized but they have their place. For example the Gaillardia called 'Tokajer' which is one of the only Asteraceae I grew that definitely looked hybridized. I don't care, for example, for the new strange Echinaceas. But the 2 plants I mentioned had serious ornamental appeal and it's a shame some small fry isn't allowed to continue propagating them for the handful of people who still want them. Maybe I'm complaining more about the nature of the licensing and whatnot than the notion of patenting itself.
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christie_sw_mo
Original Author
15 years ago
I briefly looked at that link Remy and will read some more when I can. Hopefully I can look up a plant by name instead of by the patent number.
My kids are going to be doing a unit on plants at school and I was thinking about offering a bunch of sedum cuttings for the students to root. They're getting old enough that they've all done the common stuff like sticking a sunflower seed in a cup. I thought the cuttings would be something different for them and would hopefully return next year. I have lots of Autumn Joy and that one's been around awhile so I'm hoping it's not patented. Anyone know?
lindac
15 years ago
If it is illegal to root a cutting of autumn joy than half the gardening population should go to jail.
I wouldn't worry...the times I bave bought a patented plant is says very clearly thatt his plant is patented and vegitative reproduction is prohibited.
But it might be a good lesson in respecting copywrites and respecting the intellectual property of others.
Linda C
christie_sw_mo
Original Author
15 years ago
Remy - I think I've got this figured out now.
I went to the advanced search page so I could enter the name of the plant rather than the patent number. Just putting in "sedum autumn joy" gave me an error that said "Missing boolean operator between expressions". I had to enter it as "sedum and autumn and joy" then click on search. Rest easy - It's not patented. lol
It did bring up a few other sedums that mention Autumn Joy in the description.

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