US Plant Patent PP4021
Apple tree
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Patent expired March 8, 1994. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.
Twenty years from the filing date would end on November 24, 1995, but this patent ends 626 days earlier — a terminal disclaimer gives term back. A source that calculates twenty years from filing would tell you this plant is still protected when it is already free.
The record
- Patent number
- PP4021
- Filed
- November 24, 1975
- Granted
- March 8, 1977
- Expires
- March 8, 1994
- Inventor
- DALTON WILLIAM E
No cultivar name of record
This patent does not name the plant, and for its era that is ordinary rather than an omission. Before about 1980, breeders frequently patented a plant without giving it a cultivar name at all — the grant identified it by its number, its parentage and a written description of the flower and foliage. Most plant patents from the 1930s to the 1970s have no name in them.
Nothing here is missing from our records: the patent itself states no name. Where one exists we show it, and we do not invent one.
Abstract
1. A new and distinct variety of apple tree, substantially as herein shown and described, characterized particularly as to novelty by a general resemblance in some respects to the variety "Golden Delicious" (unpatented), but being principally distinguished therefrom by a semi-dwarf habit of growth, with crotch angles of almost 90°; a more spreading spur type fruiting habit which enables better development and easier picking of the fruit; a larger and more uniform fruit size throughout the tree, with most of the fruit grading tray-pack or extra fancy; excellent russet resistance (at least 95% free of russetting) far superior to the normally heavy russetting of the variety "Golden Delicious;" an attractive golden yellow fruit color which has a distinctive and attractive reddish blush even at low altitudes; better hardiness than "Golden Delicious," with the ability to withstand lower temperatures during the blooming period; a more prolific fruit bearing habit than "Golden Delicious" when grown under the same climate and soil conditions; a longer harvest period usually ranging for about a full month, beginning in early September and continuing into early October at Hendersonville, N.C.; and a self-fertile habit, with a suitability for use as a pollinator for other varieties.
Show the legal claimThe single numbered claim as granted — the legal text that defines what this patent covers.
I claim: 1. A new and distinct variety of apple tree, substantially as herein shown and described, characterized particularly as to novelty by a general resemblance in some respects to the variety "Golden Delicious" (unpatented), but being principally distinguished therefrom by a semi-dwarf habit of growth, with crotch angles of almost 90°; a more spreading spur type fruiting habit which enables better development and easier picking of the fruit; a larger and more uniform fruit size throughout the tree, with most of the fruit grading tray-pack or extra fancy; excellent russet resistance (at least 95% free of russetting) far superior to the normally heavy russetting of the variety "Golden Delicious;" an attractive golden yellow fruit color which has a distinctive and attractive reddish blush even at low altitudes; better hardiness than "Golden Delicious," with the ability to withstand lower temperatures during the blooming period; a more prolific fruit bearing habit than "Golden Delicious" when grown under the same climate and soil conditions; a longer harvest period usually ranging for about a full month, beginning in early September and continuing into early October at Hendersonville, N.C.; and a self-fertile habit, with a suitability for use as a pollinator for other varieties.
Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4021 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.