Showing posts with label plant patents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plant patents. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

UVM Extension: Plants and intellectual property; Rutland Herald, March 18, 2023

Nadie Vanzandt, Rutland Herald; UVM Extension: Plants and intellectual property

"On May 23, 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed into law a bill called the Plant Patent Act. This bill was created to encourage private investment in plant breeding while protecting growers who spent extensive time (sometimes years) and money perfecting a cultivar only to have their invention freely reproduced and sold by others for profit."

Monday, July 24, 2017

US Patent Office Issuing Cannabis Patents To A Growing Market; Forbes, July 24, 2017

Julie Weed, Forbes; US Patent Office Issuing Cannabis Patents To A Growing Market

"Can cannabis plants being [sic] patented?

Yes, this is presently a small area of activity, but may also represent opportunity. Plants can be patented in two ways, by way of “utility patents” (like 95% of all patents) or by way of a separate “plant patent” category. Utility patents are much stronger; plant patents are narrowly focused on a single “parent” plant and its direct descendants. By my count, there are currently only 5 US plant patent cases (4 pending applications, 1 issued patent), and 11 utility plant-directed patent cases (8 pending applications, 3 issued patents). Two companies are currently the main players in plants: the plant-focused Biotechnology Institute (Los Angeles CA) has 3 issued patents as well as 2 pending applications, and GW Pharmaceuticals (UK) has two plant-focused applications. GW is notable for having the largest cannabis-directed portfolio (80+ US cases) of all companies in the space, and is particularly focused on methods of treating diseases."

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Minnesota winery owner helps breeders patent their unique plants and potables; In Forum, 9/10/16

Vicki Gerdes, In Forum; Minnesota winery owner helps breeders patent their unique plants and potables:
"[Penny] Aguirre became a student at the fledgling Plant Molecular Genetics Institute, working under Professor Alan Smith, and eventually earned her master's degree in horticulture...
That passion for plants brought her to Santa Barbara, Calif., where she took a job as general manager at PlantHaven, a small, independent agency that worked to introduce new plant cultivars into the North American market—plants developed by breeders from all over the world.
"Part of that job was writing plant patents," Aguirre says.
Eventually, she became knowledgeable enough about that part of the job that she decided to take the patent bar exam and become a registered U.S. patent agent. "It's the same bar exam that legal students take to become patent attorneys," Aguirre said. "If you have a bachelor's degree in one of the sciences, take the exam and pass, at that point you are a registered patent agent."
Though most patent agents specialize in design or utility patents, Aguirre made the relatively unusual choice of specializing exclusively in patenting plants...
Plant patenting mostly involves writing a lot of very detailed descriptions—"every leaf, every stem, every stamen, every pistil," she said, noting that there are often very minute differences between plant varieties...
For more information about Aguirre's plant patenting business, please visit www.biologicalpatentservices.com."