US Plant Patent PP4232
French prune
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Patent expired April 4, 1995. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.
Twenty years from the filing date would end on August 16, 1996, but this patent ends 500 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
- PP4232
- Filed
- August 16, 1976
- Granted
- April 4, 1978
- Expires
- April 4, 1995
- Inventor
- FRIEDMAN MARTIN; FRIEDMAN CORA G
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
This present application for a patent relates to a new asexually developed prune tree of the French type, (to be known as the Friedman French Prune). The tree is large, dense, upright, vase formed, very similar to the regular French Prune tree, but a more vigorous grower, reaching full maturity and bearing fruit at least a year earlier than regular French, well foliated with medium size and textured deep green ovate leaves, well distributed throughout the tree. The tree distinguishes from regular French however by its more vigorous growth, and faster maturity to fruit bearing stage, and the fruit always larger, more abundant and evenly distributed throughout the entire tree. All trees, Friedman French and regular French, were grown in the same orchard, under the same growing conditions for this comparison. A very productive tree coming to full bloom a few days later (a plus if there is danger of late frost), with fruit maturing to full ripe at least 6 days earlier than regular French prune, consistantly producing a full crop, of large size, medium textured, semi-free stone fruit, having basically the same color skin and flesh as regular French prune, a distinct difference being the shape of the fruit, regular French having a true ovate shape with pronounced cavity. The Friedman French, always a much larger prune, is ovate with a distinct pear shape apex, and a small shallow cavity.
Show the legal claimThe single numbered claim as granted — the legal text that defines what this patent covers.
We claim: 1. A novel French prune substantially as shown and described, characterized by its dense foliage; upright, vase shaped tree form of medium to large size; its vigorous growth; and its consistent bearing of a profuse crop of large, excellent grade fruit which are particularly adapted for drying.
Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4232 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.