35 U.S.C. § 161 — Patents for plants

This section lets someone patent a new plant variety. To qualify, the person must invent or discover the plant, and must reproduce it asexually — meaning by a method other than seed, such as cuttings or grafting. Qualifying plants include cultivated sports (natural variations), mutants, hybrids, and newly found seedlings. Two kinds of plants are excluded: a plant propagated by tuber (like a potato), and a plant found growing in an uncultivated, wild state. The general patent rules in this title — the rules that apply to patents for inventions — also apply to patents for plants, except where this title provides otherwise.