Fig Patents

General Fruit Growing
#1

I’ve had a hard time finding a simple YES or NO answer if my fig trees can be propagated and sold, any help would be appreciated.

Olympian
Kadota
Black Mission
LSU Purple
Texas Everbearing
Magnolia
Italian Everbearing
Italian Honey
Black Italian
Green Ischia
Black Madeira
LSU Scott’s Black
Desert King
Peter’s Honey
Noir De Barbentane
Lemon
Brown Turkey
Celeste
Chicago Hardy
Marsiell
Yellow Neck
Panache “Tiger”
Beall
Atreano

#2

I’ve only ever heard of a couple of patented figs. Those were bred by U of CA mainly for commercial fig growers. All the others were never patented. You are free to propagate and sell all those listed.

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#3

Based on google patents, there are only a few U.S. patents on fig varieties.

Two current patents:
Fig Tree Named ‘Sequoia’, https://www.google.com/patents/USPP20038 (exp. Dec 20, 2026)
Fig tree named ‘Violetta’, https://www.google.com/patents/USPP12828 (exp. Mar 6, 2020)

One expired patent:
Seedless fig tree ‘Janice’, https://www.google.com/patents/USPP8254 (exp. Sep 27, 2011)

Two pending patent applications:
Fig tree named ‘S-49’, https://www.google.com/patents/US20170118886
Fig tree named ‘S-64’, https://www.google.com/patents/US20170118887

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#4

I think Olympian may be patented/ trademarked

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#5

I’ll do more research on Olympian.

#6

There is not any real profit in patenting fig tree varieties because most places that sell fig trees sell something very common like Celeste, Brown Turkey, Mission, and so on. now a days with the fig community and a few nurseries increasing their variety options there is too much variety competition being distributed to whomever is not buying the most common varieties.

If any of them had patents on them it would be easy to fund out, even then patents expire. Most of the varieties I know for a fact are not patented, if a variety is having tissue culture done on it then it’s not patented and as you can see tissue culturing is being done on ‘Olympian’ Ficus carica 'Olympian' Common Fig from AgriStarts

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#7

What does “U.S. Pat. Pending” mean on these tags? I bought them at Lowe’s.

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#8

This (pending) patent is not on the fig plant but rather on the tag design.

In a first for the US horticultural market, “Grow Together” codes have been added to plant tags used by Lowe’s, a major Home Improvement retailer in the USA.

The Grow Together program works in two ways; initially, plant tags help customers identify and select the most suitable plants in the Lowe’s store.

Then, by texting the plant code to a phone number printed on each tag, customers are sent a link that takes them to a webpage outlining all they need to know about the plant, from planting and watering, to feeding and pruning.

This tag/code system is what the patent is for.

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