US Plant Patent PP4900
Apple tree
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Patent expired October 16, 2000. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.
No term adjustment or disclaimer is recorded against this patent, so this is the full statutory term — twenty years from the filing date.
The record
- Patent number
- PP4900
- Filed
- October 16, 1980
- Granted
- October 26, 1982
- Expires
- October 16, 2000
- Inventor
- MARSLAND WILLIAM P
No cultivar name of record
This patent does not name the plant. Through the 1980s and early 1990s that was still common: naming every new cultivar only became standard practice as plants began to be marketed under brand names. The grant identifies this one by its number and by a written description instead.
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
An apple tree which is more open growing with wider crotch angles, developing a heavy fruit spur system throughout the entire tree, fruit production tending to commence on the previous year's growth rather than older wood, this characteristic being especially true in young trees, thus emphasizing open growing, the fruit exhibiting a full bright red color, less prominent dots, and much more waxy skin texture that resists cracking, than the usual and known Stayman apple trees.
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 the unique combination of the general resemblance to the variety Stayman apple (unpatented) but having fruit that ripens under normal conditions approximately 5-10 days ahead of the standard variety that is a brighter red color with less prominent dots borne on a tree which is smaller and more open growing with more fruiting spurs than known Stayman variety, a tendency to fruit, especially in younger trees, on one year old wood, much more waxy skin than the standard variety of Stayman apple which increases resistance to cracking and enhances shelf storage life.
Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4900 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.