After seeking info til I feel like I'm going in circles, I don't find clear
answers to the following. Can anyone suggest good info sources, or offer
case histories? Please/thanks.
1-- Can "chance seedlings" be patented only if they grew in deliberately
planted nursery row, from seeds intended as starts for nursery stock?
2-- Chance seedlings found growing wild can NOT be patented?
3-- How would one prove that the chance seedling was wild or
nursery-germinated?
4-- If one wishes to patent a chance seedling, but scions have been given to
other amateur fruit-growers (perhaps a dozen growers) for 10 or 20 years,
can the "back tracking" be done to get non-distribution agreements from
these growers? [I don't mean 'can' as in PRACTICAL, but 'can' as in LEGAL.]
5-- If #4 can't be legally binding, &/or if #2 is true, how does one proceed
to make this chance seedling as public as possible so that no one can patent
it, so the fruit can be kept in the public domain?