---
kind: "section"
citation: "35 U.S.C. § 161"
title: "35"
title_heading: "Patents"
number: "161"
heading: "Patents for plants"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/35/161"
units:
  - "Part II — Patentability of Inventions and Grant of Patents"
  - "Chapter 15 — Plant Patents"
---

# §161. Patents for plants


Whoever invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant, including cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, and newly found seedlings, other than a tuber propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.

The provisions of this title relating to patents for [inventions](/usc/35/201.md?p=d) shall apply to patents for plants, except as otherwise provided.


## Source credit

(July 19, 1952, ch. 950, 66 Stat. 804; Sept. 3, 1954, ch. 1259, 68 Stat. 1190.)

## Notes

### Historical and Revision Notes

Based on Title 35, U.S.C., 1946 ed., § 31, part (R.S. 4886, amended (1) Mar. 3, 1897, ch. 391, § 1, 29 Stat. 692, (2) May 23, 1930, ch. 312, § 1, 46 Stat. 376, (3) Aug. 5, 1939, ch. 450, § 1, 53 Stat. 1212).

The provision relating to plants in the corresponding section of existing statute is made a separate section.

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1954—Act Sept. 3, 1954, provided that plant seedlings, discovered, propagated asexually, and proved to have new characteristics distinct from other known plants are patentable.