Propagating Patented Plants

So if a plant is patented does that mean you can't propagate your own plant to keep and plant yourself or does the patent only come into play if you go to sell it?

Then if you do decide to propagate and sell a patented plant then do you have to have prior permission from the originator or do you just send them a certain amount of money? How does that all work?

Tricia

You are not allowed to propagate a patented plant asexually (cuttings, grafting, tissue culture, etc) in any way, even for personal use without permission of the patent holder. You're unlikely to be caught and prosecuted unless you're also selling it, but it's still illegal. In general, if it produces seed you can collect seeds and grow from seed without violating the patent, but the seeds wouldn't be likely to come true so you probably won't get something that looks like the parent. Since the seeds don't produce a genetic duplicate of the parent, they are not covered by the patent. (one exception to seeds being OK is the Roundup Ready agricultural crops--those you're not allowed to propagate by seed)

If you want to propagate and sell a patented plant, you would need to contact the patent owner. You would need their permission, and there would be some sort of license fee involved as well but the specific procedure & cost likely vary by company.

Ok, thanks for the info. I wasn't planning on doing it but always like to know the "rules."