As a follow-up to your previous "racy" comment thread I thought I should alert you and your readers to the fact that potato plants reproduce asexually. For this reason new strains of potato are considered unpatentable subject matter by the US Patent And Trademark Office. Link.
Whoever invents or discovers and asexually reproduces 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, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of title. (Amended September 3, 1954, 68 Stat. 1190). Link
Thanks, chickelit, for all the information, disinformation, misinformation, and, finally, information information. Let no man assert (with validity) that freedom of speech at Sweety Meadey Potato is suppressed, repressed, depressed, or even, in any way - sexually, asexually, or otherwise... pressed.
@Meade
ReplyDeletere: Potato Sex
As a follow-up to your previous "racy" comment thread I thought I should alert you and your readers to the fact that potato plants reproduce asexually. For this reason new strains of potato are considered unpatentable subject matter by the US Patent And Trademark Office. Link.
Title 35 United States Code, Section 161 states:
ReplyDeleteWhoever invents or discovers and asexually reproduces 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, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of title. (Amended September 3, 1954, 68 Stat. 1190). Link
So I was wrong in my first comment: it's not because it reproduces asexually- it's an outright statutory bar.
ReplyDeleteThanks, chickelit, for all the information, disinformation, misinformation, and, finally, information information. Let no man assert (with validity) that freedom of speech at Sweety Meadey Potato is suppressed, repressed, depressed, or even, in any way - sexually, asexually, or otherwise... pressed.
ReplyDeleteI would still like to know why new strains of potato plants are barred from patentability. I guess the answer is buried back in 1950s era case law.
ReplyDeleteCecil?
ReplyDeleteDo you pronounce that "See-sill" or the British way: "Cess-ill"?
The Purdue and Green Bay way: "Greatness!"
ReplyDelete