Bringing this back up. Are there any current lists of non-patented varieties? I’m looking to create some stone fruit multigrafted trees in the years to come, and if it works out, I’d like to sell them. I’m trying to make sure I get varieties that I could legally sell down the road. Maybe there’s already a thread for this?
I would also be interested in a list of apples.
That’s right in some cases. There are also plenty of plants which got patented after they were found to have unique characteristics, despite the breeder not at all working to breed a plant with said characteristics. An example that comes to mind immediately is Dicentra spectabilis ‘Hordival’ Valentine™. As quoted from the patent, “… a naturally occurring chance seedling growing in a garden of the parent variety, the unpatented Dicentra spectabilis.”
Looks like Harrow sweet is off patent. 1992intro Surprised many other nurseries arent propagating it. I guess the name iis trademarked.
The Harrow releases were all developed in Canada. I’m not a patent lawyer, but from what I’ve read Canadian patents do not apply in the United States. The patent would need to have been registered in both countries for patent protection to apply. I don’t believe its common practice to apply for plant patents in multiple jurisdictions unless you’re a huge multinational like Monsanto etc.
I’ve noticed that when plants get patented in multiple countries (some countries refer to it by a different term than “patent,” but it’s effectively the same thing), the expiration dates in the US won’t be the same as in the other countries. Not just because of different laws about the length of the protection, but also because the patents commonly get applied for at different times. I’ve seen where plants have been patented in the US YEARS after they had been released in another country. However, this can only happen if the plant was not yet introduced to the public in the country it’s being patented in (at the time of application).