US Plant Patent PP4117
elastica
Rubber plant (Ficus elastica)
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Patent expired October 4, 1994. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.
Twenty years from the filing date would end on August 12, 1996, but this patent ends 678 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
- PP4117
- Filed
- August 12, 1976
- Granted
- October 4, 1977
- Expires
- October 4, 1994
- Inventor
- ITO TOKUYASU; IKUTA HIDEO
Abstract
A rubber plant exhibiting border-variegated foliage and resembling the known Ficus elastica Roxb. var. decora tricolor hort., but bearing leaves having very narrow and distinct light-yellow border variegation and having a larger coriaceous oblong-shaped blade. Buds and young leaves are reddish in color. Propagation of new plants is easily accomplished by stem-cutting.
Show the legal claimThe single numbered claim as granted — the legal text that defines what this patent covers.
What we claim is: 1. A new and distinct variety of Ficus elastica Roxb. var. decora tricolor hort., substantially as herein shown and described, characterized over the known rubber plant having variegated foliage, Ficus elastica Roxb. var. decora tricolor hort., in that proportions of light-yellow areas of the variegated leaves are small as a whole, said light-yellow areas appearing relatively narrow in size and are distinctly located on the edges of the leaves to form a so-called "thread-like border variegation"; leaves before development, namely buds and young leaves are reddish in color; grown leaves are larger in size than leaves of the known Ficus elastica Roxb. var. decora tricolor hort. and have an oblong shape with a thick coriaceous texture; and the new variety can be easily propagated by stem-cutting.
Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4117 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.