Delano Farms Company v. California Table Grape Comm., No. 14-1030 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 9, 2015)

From the Opinion

The passage below is extracted verbatim from the opening of the document. It has not been editorially summarized — consult the full opinion for the court's complete reasoning.

This appeal involves a challenge to the validity of two plant patents for varieties of table grapes developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) and l i- censed to the California Table Grape Commission. The plaintiffs filed suit against the USDA and the California Table Grape Commission, seeking to invalidate the p a- tents on the ground that the two grape varieties were in public use more than one year before the applications for both plant pat ents were filed , and that the patents are therefore inval…