Mr. Smits, who specializes in evergreens, noticed a yellow branch on an otherwise green arborvitae in his nursery, according to the plant patent application he filed.

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The Plant Patent Act of 1930 was designed to encourage the cultivation of new varieties of plants by prohibiting competitors from cultivating the offspring of those plants without permission.

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Though beaten to a patent maize plant by Dr Kindiger and his colleagues, they believe they may already have identified one of the genes the Oklahoma group is seeking, and that they are hot on the trail of the others.

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According to WTO rules, countries must either accept the WTO's stringent patent-protection regime for plant and animal products or set up their own systems for protection.

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So the news that, last month, a group of American and Russian researchers received a patent for an apomictic maize plant has probably caused a few flutters in seed-company boardrooms.

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Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University have jointly devised a patent-pending method to build organic solar cells using plant-derived substrates.

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His patent covers all sorts of emissions systems, he says, even power plant smokestacks.

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The dominant patent holder in agrobacterium transformation, the most widely-used means of plant gene-transfer, is Monsanto, a big agricultural firm.

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UMaine has filed a provisional patent for the lobster-shell mixture, which can also be used for such products as plant pots that decompose in the ground, surveying stakes and other applications.

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