Intellectual Property In Horticulture: A Guide To Plant Patents And Trademarks; Forbes, December 4, 2024

Tammy Sons, Forbes ; Intellectual Property In Horticulture: A Guide To Plant Patents And Trademarks

"The Role Of Patents In Horticulture

Patents play an important role in horticulture:

• Encouraging innovation: Creating new varieties of plants involves investing a lot in research. Plant patents encourage breeders to keep on creating different plant varieties.

• Market share protection: After breeders develop a particular variety of plant, they decide on its production and sale. No competitor has the right to propagate the variety for sale without special permission; hence, this privilege gives the breeder a competitive edge.

A way to gain income: Patents can enable breeders to license their varieties to other growers or nurseries. These licenses enable those breeders to make sales. Popular varieties' profits may come from the licensing agreement...

The Place Of Trademarks In The Horticulture Industry

Trademarks can give the following advantages to horticulture businesses:

• Brand differentiation: A good trademark will enable a firm to set itself apart from its competitors and build consumer loyalty. In horticulture, for instance, a nursery firm might have dozens of items similar to those of other nurseries; hence, recognition by trademark can make quite a difference in attracting and retaining customers.

• Legal protection: USPTO registration protects against infringement of any kind. If another company tries to sell using a similar brand name, logo or product name, a trademark holder can sue that company for creating confusion in the market."

Plotting a patent; Nursery Management, February 6, 2017

Karen E. Varga, Nursery Management; 

Plotting a patent

"There have been 28,191 plant patent applications filed through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) since 1963. From those applications, 24,021 plant patents were granted. While, comparatively speaking, plant patents make up a very small portion of the overall number of patents granted in the U.S. (there were 25,986 design patents granted in 2015 alone), their importance within the horticulture industry has grown, especially with the proliferation of brands...

When the America Invents Act was signed into law in 2011 and fully implemented in 2013, the U.S. went from being a “first to invent” to a “first inventor to file” country, putting it in line with most of the rest of the world. Under the new system, whomever files the patent application first can become the patent owner. That means that if you publicly disclose your plant before filing, you risk losing patentability. In addition, the new system considers any public disclosure outside of the U.S. the same as one made within our borders.

“The most important thing I tell people is, don’t show it to anybody, particularly anybody from outside of your operation,” McCoy says. “Don’t disclose it, don’t show it to anyone, and then get with a practitioner. Under this ‘first inventor to file’ system, you need to file before you disclose in any way.”

For 10 more patent questions and their answers, read the full article in our February issue."