US Plant Patent PP4974
Apple tree
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Patent expired July 8, 2001. 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
- PP4974
- Filed
- July 8, 1981
- Granted
- January 18, 1983
- Expires
- July 8, 2001
- Assignee
- MCCORMICK S FRUIT TREE CO INC
- Inventor
- TAYLOR ALVAH
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 a sport of "Starkspur Red Rome Beauty" (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,121) and develops overall red fruit coloring in September well in advance of parent, has greater sugar content, keeps well in ordinary storage conditions on the average about one hundred sixty days or longer, is mildew and insect resistant similarly as parent, but grows as a less compact tree than parent.
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 particularly as to novelty by the unique combination of earlier ripening than parent "Starkspur Red Rome Beauty" with early overall color of fruit a solid red, sugar content one-percent greater on the average than parent, good keeping qualities, mildew and insect resistant similar to parent, and somewhat less compact tree size than parent.
Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4974 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.