List of unprotected plants

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wahfun Alpharetta, GA May 22, 2009

Hello all,

I am retiring and love to garden so I am thinking of starting a small backyard nursery. I have checked out licensing requirements, identified the competition, and have determined the size of my proposed nursery. I plan to do rooted cuttings to build most of my stock for resale. Now, I know that certain patented or trademarked plants have legal restrictions on propagation. So, my question is, does anyone know of a list of some unprotected plants or where I might go to find such a list? I know that I can look on the label of a plant to see if it carries the trademark or patent information but I am just looking to save some time.

Thx

Post #6582189
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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) May 22, 2009

Patented plants can't be reproduced asexually (tissue culture, cuttings, etc). Trademarked plants can be propagated, but you can't sell them under the trademarked name without permission of the trademark holder. Typically the trademark names are cutesy and memorable, but the plant will also have a real cultivar name and you'd be able to sell it under the real cultivar name (assuming of course it wasn't also patented...which many of the trademarked plants are).

As far as finding out whether it's patented or not--there's no list anywhere that I know of, you either have to look at the plant tag or else if you google the cultivar name you should be able to find the info that way. Or you can go to the patent office website www.uspto.gov and search for it there. But I don't think anyone's ever compiled a list of all the patented plants, so assuming you are going to be going out and buying your stock plants I think the best thing to do will be glance at the plant tags before you put them in your cart. Or you can stick with growing only things that are a straight species vs a named cultivar, you can't patent those so you'll be safe.

Post #6582611
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Metrosideros Keaau, HI May 22, 2009

Couldn't cultivars be sold under their species name without repercussions?

Post #6583420
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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) May 22, 2009

Technically speaking, if they're patented and the patent holder caught you, you could still get in trouble--the patent protects the plant itself, not just the name (unlike the trademark which only protects the name). If you're a smaller seller and you're not selling it using the cultivar name it's much less likely you'd get caught of course, but you're still not supposed to.

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