My understanding is that patents have to be applied for in every country the rose is to be sold. And yes, Trademarks are pretty much forever, so distributing a rose under its TM name isn't legal. A Trademark must be renewed by the owner every ten years, I believe. I do not know if David Austin Roses diligently renews all of its Trademarks or not.

@malcolm_manners can probably shed more information on this question about patents and coverage. If I recall correctly, he indicated to me that when one country patents a plant, it's considered international and other countries with plant patents honor it. Not that there are agents in other countries collecting royalties or doing licensing deals but that the patent is honored, meaning no one legally handling patented material infringes upon it. You can look up patents on Google Patents. Search Google patent search and you will have the address.

Thanks, sir!

@malcolm_manners Thank you for your information.

I just wonder if US recognizes patents from other countries, then why David Austin filed for patents in the UK, US, and Canada. For instance in the case of Spirit of Freedom rose https://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.38211 which was introduced in the UK in 2002 so I'm guessing they filed a patent in the UK in 2002 or earlier. I don't understand why they filed for US patent on 8 Jul 2003 and Canada patent on 13 Jan 2004? Is that because they needed to file patents in the US and Canada in order to sell this rose in the US and Canada markets? Helen

Again, Thank you to all for this amazing information! When I look at Helpmefind sometimes it only list Australia patents and UK patents, but the US David Austin site list US introduction year. Nothing like a little confusion to make this harder to understand. I guess I will use the most recent patent date from any country.

Malcolm ...Lim Ping mentioned that China was completely ignoring his patents and he was trying to be flattered, but it would be easier to be flattered, if money came along with it.

Paul...When I listened to DA PR director she seemed to indicate that they were more or less dropping the roses with disease issues and only producing a few out of patent roses, if they did not have disease issues....soooo...I am guessing that they won't renew those trademarks....but I am thinking better to use the breeder code even if I am giving away an old out of patent, out of commerce David Austin.

My husband suggested asking my cousin who did international law for MS....but I figured asking here might get me an answer that applies to roses, with all the smart people around here!!

I've had success googling the HMF "Registration Name" and seeing if it's in the list of US patents. I have no idea how thorough that is as an approach, but if you do find it and it's older than 20 years, you're probably fine to propagate.

Aaron, sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't on Austins...A couple require a little quessing from intro. date. I only found one that had a newer patent than intro. date, but only by a year.. a little funny, but probably the DA site was giving intro. dates in the UK.

Also, the patent term is 20 years from date of filing printed on the patent.

David Austin continues to be a registered TM in the US at present. Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) (uspto.gov)

getgoing100_7b_nj Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I had also heard 17 years from patent date and wondered, because that was about 20 years from filing. That amount of years confusion makes sense now. I did stumble on the patent search engine....and found it fairly easy.

This makes it so much clearer! Now I feel I can get local rose groups to propagate roses while being careful of the legal stuff, yet helping each other, while not hurting our beloved breeders.

Ann, once upon a time, the term of a US patent was 17 years from date of grant. Then there was a transition period when it was either 17 years from grant or 20 years from filing, whichever was later. However, all patents with those complicated terms have long expired. Now, it is simply 20 years from date of filing with one caveat. Sometimes, the term is extended by several days to compensate for USPTO's delays in processing of a patent. Such extension days are also printed on the front page of the patent (pdf version at the USPTO).