US Plant Patent PP4231
Rose plant
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Patent expired March 28, 1995. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.
Twenty years from the filing date would end on June 10, 1997, but this patent ends 805 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
- PP4231
- Filed
- June 10, 1977
- Granted
- March 28, 1978
- Expires
- March 28, 1995
- 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
This invention relates to a new and distinct variety of miniature rose plant characterized by its buds and flowers of rich deep yellow color, borne in abundance throughout the growing season, and further characterized by the bushy upright plant, well branched from the base, which is easy to propagate from cuttings.
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 rose plant of hardy, dwarf, bushy, upright, much branched habit substantially as illustrated and described, characterized by buds and flowers which are generally of a clear yellow color, the center of opening buds and flowers at times tending to be deeper yellow (or gold yellow); with buds and flowers being similar in size and shape to Bit O'Sunshine (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 1,631, expired) but having more petals; and further characterized by a plant similar to Yellow Magic (miniature, not patented) which is vigorous and compact, the shoots and branches having fairly short internodes, said plant being easy to propagate from cuttings; and having an abundance of semi-glossy to matt foliage, with flowers borne singly or several to the stem in loose clusters.
Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4231 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.