US Plant Patent PP4144
Apple tree
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Patent expired November 8, 1994. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.
Twenty years from the filing date would end on October 29, 1996, but this patent ends 721 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
- PP4144
- Filed
- October 29, 1976
- Granted
- November 8, 1977
- Expires
- November 8, 1994
- Inventor
- GORDON ROBERT B
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
A new variety of apple tree that does extremely well in the mild climatic coastal regions of Southern California. The plant has a long flowering period that normally commences in the early part of April and extends through the month of May. The tree produces an abundance of green-red colored apples that range from medium to large in size, the flesh of the fruit is crisp, firm, fine textured and very juicy. The flavor of the apples is sweet-tart and the fruit has a distinct aroma making it excellent as eating apples; the fruit is also very good when made into sauce, baked or cooked in other ways. The first fruit normally starts to ripen by mid August and the tree continues to bear fruit until the middle of October.
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 shown and described, characterized as to novelty by the abundant production of medium to large size apples having a beautiful green and red coloring suitable for growing in the mild climatic coastal regions of Southern California, by the flesh of said apples which is crisp, firm, fine textured and very juicy and has a sweet-tart flavor and a distinct aroma making the apples excellent for both eating and cooking, by its long flowering period that commences early in April and continues throughout the month of May, by the deep deep pink color of the petals at the time the flowers first open, said deep pink color of the petals becoming progressively lighter pink as the flowers approach maturity and becoming a very pale pink at full maturity, by the early maturing of the fruit and by its long bearing season that provides ripe apples commencing in mid August and continuing until mid October, and by its vigorous, dense, upright growth habit that provides an attractive tree suitable for residential planting as well as for orchard use.
Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4144 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.