Plant Patent is the only way you can legally protect a new plant. In the USA, the term of a plant patent is 20 years from the date the application was filed. During this 20 year period, the patent holder is granted a monopoly that conveys the right to exclude others from making, using or selling his invention. After 20 years the invention falls into public domain. Since the Plant Patent Act was enacted almost 68 years ago, 8700 plant patents have been granted. Current rates of applications for new plant patents are between 300 and 400 per year. The cost of a patent for one plant is between $1850 and $3200. A good rule of thumb is that a patent attorney's fees will be about $1000 to $1500 for a single plant patent. In addition to these fees are government fees, which as you can probably guess change from time to time, but which are currently a total of $1700. For individuals and companies with less than 500 employees the government fees are reduced by 50%. Only the breeder or the discoverer of a new variety can apply for a plant patent on that variety. In the patent application the breeder must satisfactorily describe the new variety, how it came into being, and how it differs from other closely related, previously existing varieties. Additionally, the breeder or discoverer must indicate that the variety has been successfully asexually propagated and that the essential characters of the variety are maintained through asexual propagation. The application process is fairly straight forward and can be undertaken by any individual of any country in the world; US citizenship is not a requirement. Update! Rights Conveyed by a Plant Patent Grant of a patent for a plant precludes others from asexually reproducing or selling or using the patented plant. A plant patent is regarded as limited to one plant, or genome. A sport or mutant of a patented plant would not be considered to be of the same genotype, would not be covered by the plant patent to the parent plant, and would, itself, be separately patentable, subject to meeting the requirements of patentability. A plant patent expires 20 years from the filing date of the patent application. As with utility applications, when the plant patent expires, the subject matter of the patent becomes public domain. United States Patent and Trademark Office USPTO Plant Variety Rights PVR A grant of Plant Variety Rights gives the breeder the exclusive right to sell seed or reproductive material of the new variety, or he may licence others to do this. The breeder is also entitled to collect royalties on sales of seed or reproductive material. Plant Variety Rights Office PVRO
This is the first Brugmansia patent that we are aware of!
More about Patents (In the search box type plant patent) Europe - Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) |
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