Plant Patent

You can get patents on all sorts of stuff. A new kind of computer chip. A new technique for chipmunk CPR. A new style of bathroom wiping involving wooden dowels and a suction cup.

You can also patent plants. Now, you can't necessarily just pick a weed out of your yard and mail it to the patent office. But if you invent a new plant type, you can protect the intellectual property through the patent office.

In some cases, you can patent a plant you discover. However, there are rules dictating what constitutes a patentable discovery. The idea, though, is that if you make an advance in agricultural science (a genetically modified cucumber that can replace the wooden dowels in your already established wiping patent), you can protect it, just as you would with any other invention.