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The Patent Garden

US Plant Patent PP4676

Semi-spur mutant strain of Granny Smith apple tree

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Patent expired January 22, 1999. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.

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
PP4676
Filed
January 22, 1979
Granted
March 24, 1981
Expires
January 22, 1999
Inventor
COOPER CALVIN

No cultivar name of record

This patent does not name the plant. Through the 1980s and early 1990s that was still common: naming every new cultivar only became standard practice as plants began to be marketed under brand names. The grant identifies this one by its number and by a written description instead.

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

A new and distinct variety of `Granny Smith` apple tree characterized by its semi-spur growth characteristics, with node spacings approximately intermediate those of `Stardard` and `Hannaford` (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,453), and by its fruit having distinct dark green stripes imposed on a lightly mottled green background.

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

I claim: 1. A new and distinct variety of Granny Smith apple tree, substantially as described and illustrated, characterized by its semi-spur growth characteristics with internodal spacing generally intermediate that of the standard Granny Smith variety and the Hannaford variety (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,453), and by its fruit having distinct dark green stripes, the predominant color of Hannaford fruit, superimposed on a slightly mottled lighter green color, the predominant color of standard Granny Smith fruit.

Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4676 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.