Last updated: August 17, 2026

What Do Plant Patents Cover?

Plant patents can be granted to anyone who has invented or discovered and asexually reproduced any distinct and new variety of plant, including cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, and newly found seedlings, other than a tuber-propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state. A plant patent is granted on the entire plant. It therefore follows that only one claim is necessary and only one is permitted.

Asexually propagated plants are those that are reproduced by means other than from seeds, such as by the rooting of cuttings, by layering, budding, grafting, inarching, etc.

With reference to tuber-propagated plants, for which a plant patent cannot be obtained, the term “tuber” is used in its narrow horticultural sense as meaning a short, thickened portion of an underground branch. Examples of plants covered by the term “tuber-propagated” include the Irish potato and the Jerusalem artichoke.

An application for a plant patent consists of the same parts as other applications. The term of a plant patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States. If the application contains a specific reference to an earlier filed application, the 20 year term would start from the date of that earlier application.

The oath or declaration required of the applicant in addition to the statements required for other applications must include the statement that the applicant has asexually reproduced the new plant variety. If the plant is a newly found plant, the oath or declaration must also state that the plant was found in a cultivated area.

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