US Plant Patent PP20624
AU BUCK IV
Chestnut plant named ‘AU BUCK IV’
UNDER PATENT
Still under patent. Protection ends January 30, 2028.
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
- PP20624
- Filed
- January 30, 2008
- Granted
- January 5, 2010
- Expires
- January 30, 2028
- Assignee
- UNIV AUBURN
- Inventor
- DOZIER JR W ALFRED; NORTON JOSEPH DANIEL; HANSEN CURTIS J
Abstract
‘AU Buck IV’ is a new and distinct Chinese chestnut cultivar that is blight resistant, precocious and an annual bearer. It produces a medium to heavy crop load each year and a large sized nut. Nut drop begins about October 10 and continues for a 5-6 week period. A high percentage of nuts produced drop during the first 4 weeks of the period that nuts drop from this cultivar. ‘AU Buck IV’ is a small tree that is broadly elliptic in shape with high, upright to spreading and diffuse branches that was 8.23 meters tall with a canopy covering an area of 30.19 square meters at 15 years old. ‘AU Buck IV’ is the fourth cultivar to mature and drop nuts in a series of four Chinese chestnut cultivars that will provide for a continuous nut drop of a high energy wildlife food source from late August through mid-to-late November.
Show the legal claimThe single numbered claim as granted — the legal text that defines what this patent covers.
1. A new and distinct cultivar of the species Castanea mollissima Blume named ‘AU Buck IV’ as described and illustrated herein.
Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP20624 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.