inventors

Last month on these pages, we told you about the invention of the umbrella that can be protection from April showers. Now we’ll tell you about May flowers—specifically the beginnings of intellectual property protection for new plants and the emergence of plant patents—to celebrate passage of the U.S. Plant Patent Act of 1930, 92 years ago this month.

Not all inventors and entrepreneurs understand what intellectual property (IP) is, or its essential role in protecting their rights. So the USPTO has initiated a pilot program to ultimately reach people in locations where IP has not traditionally been maximized.