US Plant Patent PP4097
St. Augustine grass
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Patent expired September 6, 1994. This plant is in the public domain — anyone may propagate and sell it.
Twenty years from the filing date would end on August 13, 1996, but this patent ends 707 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
- PP4097
- Filed
- August 13, 1976
- Granted
- September 6, 1977
- Expires
- September 6, 1994
- Assignee
- SCOTT & SONS CO O M
- Inventor
- GRUIS JAKE T; RIORDAN TERRANCE P; LONG JOHN A
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
A perennial St. Augustine grass having outstanding dark green color, rapid lateral spread, a semi-dwarf growth habit, and a medium level of flowering shoot production. This variety has good gray leafspot resistance throughout the year and is cold tolerant.
Show the legal claimThe single numbered claim as granted — the legal text that defines what this patent covers.
What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is: 1. A St. Augustine grass, substantially as herein illustrated and described.
Read the full patent: US Plant Patent PP4097 in full — the complete specification, every figure, and the file history.