Miniature rose plant

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Patent expired March 29, 1994. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.

Twenty years from the filing date would end on January 23, 1996, but this patent ends 665 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

PP4026

Filed

January 23, 1976

Granted

March 29, 1977

Expires

March 29, 1994

Inventor

MOORE RALPH S

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

1. A new and distinct variety of miniature moss rose plant of hardy dwarf, rounded, much branched, bush type, as illustrated and described, characterized (1) by buds which are heavily covered with soft moss-like appendages -- said "moss" covering the sepals and extending downward onto the peduncle, and (2) by buds and flowers resembling the Baby Pinocchio (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 2,967) miniature rose in general form and size, but less double, the color being a light shade of pink; the general color effect being light pink -- of a shade resembling Fairy Moss (miniature -- U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,083); and further characterized by a plant which is of moderate vigor, compact growth habit with short internodes, easy to propagate by budding as well as by cuttings; with small semi-glossy to mat foliage; and flowers, produced recurrently throughout the growing season, borne singly or several to the stem in loose clusters.

Show the legal claimThe single numbered claim as granted — the legal text that defines what this patent covers.

The following is claimed: 1. A new and distinct variety of miniature moss rose plant of hardy dwarf, rounded, much branched, bush type, as illustrated and described, characterized (1) by buds which are heavily covered with soft moss-like appendages--said "moss" covering the sepals and extending downward onto the peduncle, and (2) by buds and flowers resembling the Baby Pinocchio (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 2,967) miniature rose in general form and size, but less double, the color being a light shade of pink; the general color effect being light pink -- of a shade resembling Fairy Moss (miniature--U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,083); and further characterized by a plant which is of moderate vigor, compact growth habit with short internodes, easy to propagate by budding as well as by cuttings; with small semi-glossy to mat foliage; and flowers, produced recurrently throughout the growing season, borne singly or several to the stem in loose clusters.

Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4026 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.