Home Depot Expo Nixed ‘Cherry Star’ Seed Patent, Fed. Cir. Says

A 2011 Home Depot event that exhibited a “Cherry Star” flower was enough to prevent the variety from gaining patent protection, a Federal Circuit panel ruled Thursday.

The court found the expo constituted a prior “public use” that later precluded the ornamental plant’s patent registration. The panel indicated that, had the plant been anything other than decorative, a public viewing might not have undermined its patentability.

“The ‘Cherry Star’ plant on display at the Home Depot event was indisputably identifiable as such,” Judge Alan D. Lourie wrote in the non-precedential opinion, noting that its public viewing was “undoubtedly a use ...