With the scion trading season approaching soon, I thought it might be interesting to list some of the varieties that are recently off patent or will be off soon. Here are a few that I am aware of (edited to include varieties mentioned by others):
Nectarine/Peach:
Arctic Jay Nectarine (USPP9908), Expired Mar 11, 2016
Arctic Blaze Nec. (USPP10174) Expired Sep 20, 2016
Arctic Belle Nec. (USPP10479) Expires Apr 21, 2017
Honey Blaze Nec. (USPP10250) Expires Dec 27, 2016
Snow Beauty Peach (USPP10175) Expired Aug 30, 2016
Kaweah Peach (USPP10177) Expired Nov 7, 2016
Sweet September Peach (USPP9964), Expired Apr 25, 2016
Glenglo Peach (USPP10652) Expires Feb 18, 2017
Interspecifics:
Flavorosa (USPP10285) Expires Jan 13, 2017
Geo Pride (USPP10386) Expires Feb 13, 2017
Honey Rich (USPP10292) Expires Feb 4, 2017
I’d be interested in hearing folks’ experiences with the Kaweah peach, especially east of the Rockies. DWN says Kaweah is a taste-test winner out West. I wonder how it would perform back East. Sounds like a delicious peach.
I am also interested to hear about Kaweah. I wanted to buy it in Italy but unfortunately it was available only for commercial growers so I ended up with O’Henry which is ripening around that time
I would like to get a scion of the hard to find Glenglo peach. Seems like Olpea or someone mentioned it would be going off patent soon but I cannot find any info about the Glenglo patent
Note the patent shows Brix at only 10, but it’s the best early peach I grow, overall. Large size and good flavor. Foliage is spotless, as is the fruit.
The first few fruits from this batch were watery and just okay. Latter ones were really good: sweetened up and texture improved; got melting and nice and tangy. Not super sweet, but sweet enough to be good. The best one I had was on July 22, 2015.
I bought another batch the last week of July. Early ones that week were okay. Later ones got overripe and spoiled.
I ate this one on July 25, 2015 shortly after snapping this picture:
Same here. I want Glenglo as well. Its a variety that was created in my region and I think it should grow well here. Looks like the patent timing is perfect for next spring assuming I can find someone that had spare scions.
ACN lists Glenglo as Plant Patent #10,652 (Glenglo™ — Adams County Nursery). The patent (https://www.google.com/patents/USPP10652) doesn’t call it by the trademarked name but Glenn Welsh is the inventor and ACN is the assignee so I believe it’s correct. Priority date was Feb 18, 1997 so expiration was Feb 18, 2017, meaning this one is now off patent.
The patent for Glenglo was filed on Feb. 18, 1997. It was filed under the name GW115 (GW stands for Glenn Welsh) It was released under the name Glenglo. It’s not uncommon for peach breeders to patent a peach as one of their numerical accessions, but release it under a more snazzy sounding name. Paul Friday is the only one I know of who keeps the numerical accession as the release name (i.e. PF7A, PF25, etc). Apparently Glen Walsh likes his name, so he based it on his trademark peach, Glen-glo. I need to develop a peach and call it Mark-glo, lol - somehow doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Jim Friday created the Stellar peach series, but named his numerical accessions after his farm name - Fruit Acres. So all his numerical accessions begin with the letters FA (i.e. FA42 = Autumnstar peach)
Plant patents last for 20 years (from the date of filing, not the date of the application was approved). In the case of Glenglo, the patent expired on Feb. 18, 2017. I actually propagated some Glenglo trees in the spring of 2017, because it had just been released from patent protection.
The name Glenglo is trademarked. Trademarks don’t have an expiration, so long as the interested party keeps up the trademark (i.e. continues to protect the trademark). What that means in terms of Glenglo, is that you can legally propagate it yourself, but technically you can’t market the fruit using the trademarked name if you didn’t buy the trees from a nursery licensed to sell the trees. The apple Pink Lady is also like this.
I think Brad covered a lot of the important recent ones, but the list on the link below was provided by Dave Wilson Nursery ahead of the CFRG scion exchange season. I’m surprised how many errors there are on it (such as Pink Lady being listed as patented – as noted above it’s still trademarked but the patent has expired), but provides another reference point from the DWN perspective.
I may skim through the issued patents to update this once I have a little time as there seems to be some interest. Patents with #'s around 11,000 should be off patent or coming off soon. I can’t say a specific number because the patent number is determined by the issue date and not the priority date, which is the one that matters for when it expires. If the number is less than 11,000 though, there is a pretty good chance that it is off patent now (though you’d have to check to know for sure).
I’ll contribute what little knowledge I know of that list (I don’t keep up with CA peach cultivars as much). But off the top of my head, I know these peach cultivars are no longer patent protected (I had to look up some of them to make sure my memory worked.)
O’Henry - good peach if you can get it to produce decently. It’s an old variety. I’m surprised the list showed it patented.
Sweet Sept. I don’t think I’ve grown this one, but the name sounds familiar, so I looked it up. Like others on this list, it’s off patent.
Rich May - a loser for me
Spring Snow - one of my favorite white peaches, as well as one of the best early peaches grown here. I just love this peach and don’t understand why it’s not at the top of the list for an early peach. It’s a white, which I generally don’t like, but the flavor is one of my favorites for three years running. I have propagated this so much that I have dozens of this cultivar, from one tree which was accidentally shipped to me by Adams County. It isn’t super productive in challenging weather, but I forgive it on that fault because it’s the best for this early window, and one ofs the best whites I’ve tried.
Klondike - a loser for me here. Terrible bac. spot.
September Snow - Another loser for me. Way too much bac. spot.
Sugar Lady
Edit: I confused Sugar Lady with Sugar Giant, so I’m removing my comment about Sugar Lady. I’ve not grown Sugar Lady. It is off patent though, so I’ll keep it on this list.
